


The Curse of Kindness

by SunshineScorpius



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Anxiety, But it's not all sad, Depression, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, M/M, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Post-Hogwarts, Scorbus own two (2) pets and I would die for both of them, healer!scorpius, i think about post-hogwarts scorbus a lot, i tried to balance out the humour too (at least in later chapters), look this is really really sad, magizoologist!albus, minor problems with eating, terrorist attacks, there is a bunch of headcanons that I am finally sharing in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:13:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22543840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineScorpius/pseuds/SunshineScorpius
Summary: There’s never a dull day at Saint Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, not with all the weird and wonderful ways wizards can wind up in a hospital bed. However, it can be very stressful. A week of terrorist attacks means the hospital is overflowing with patients, Scorpius is putting in more hours working than he is sleeping, and the case of a little girl hits much closer to home than originally anticipated.
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter
Comments: 36
Kudos: 79





	1. the orphanage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome to my new short multi-chapter fic :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy the first chapter!

The sun filtered through the slight gap in the curtains, casting a serene golden glow over the room, bouncing off the soft grey-painted walls. The two boys stirred slightly, the blonde rolling over to throw his arm over the other and cuddling further into him. The sun was only just rising, the pavements still deserted except the few making their way to work before the rush of the traffic.

The birds sang their morning songs, the children cried their morning tears, the breeze whistled through the morning dew-covered grass as the world slowly rose with the sun. There was peaceful serenity to the world at this time in the morning. It was when everything seemed to slow down, a time when you could stand back and admire everything. The orange hue of the sky, the smell of your lovers hair, the warmth of your duvet and the feel of skin on skin.

Protective arms wrapped around him, pulling Scorpius closer to Albus’ chest. Mornings were rare in the Malfoy-Potter home. Either Scorpius was up and out before the sun rose, or not back until it had long gone down and slept through the morning, or Albus had rose and made them both breakfast, leaving Scorpius’ wrapped on the kitchen counter before heading off to work himself. Mornings like this, where they can bask in each others warmth, was a once in a blue moon occasion.

Which is why they lay completely still, entwined together as one entity and let themselves enjoy the peaceful morning. They mumbled sleepy declarations of love, pressed lazy kisses to lips, cheeks, necks and held onto each other like their very lives depended on it.

Even as the green flashing lights and loud sirens sped past their home, interrupting the morning peace, they never dared move. Not even Scorpius’ curiosity piqued enough for him to climb out of his warm bed to peep through the curtains and see the commotion, a miracle in itself; Albus says his curiosity will be the death of him. _Not this time_ , Scorpius thought as he closed his eyes and let himself drift back into a gentle sleep.

They clambered out of bed about an hour later, forced to by their Great Dane, Tilda, and their Crup, Simba, scratching against the bedroom door, begging for their morning feed. They eventually relented, leaving one last lazy kiss on the others lips before rolling out of bed. Albus opened the curtains, allowing the full morning sun to enter and light up the room, blinding him slightly. He heard Scorpius giggle from the other side of the room before they connected once again, the distance too much even for just a moment. They spent so long apart these days that when they were together, they couldn’t stay away from each other.

Scorpius gave Tilda and Simba their morning feed as Albus fixed up breakfast for the two of them, settling them down with freshly baked croissants and a cup of tea for Scorpius, a coffee for Albus. Once they ate, the four of them settled in the living room. Albus sat with the Daily Prophet and read the morning headlines through his reading glasses (actually, Scorpius was pretty sure they were _his_ reading glasses, but they were so similar that Albus tended to get them mixed up). Scorpius, however, simply rested his head in his husbands lap and closed his eyes, feeling content with his life and everyone in it.

It was rare for him to have a day off. The hospital was always so busy; they were currently in a crisis moment of being rapidly understaffed. The last time they’d both shared a lazy Sunday together was when they first moved into their new house, located in the muggle town of Surrey. It was perfect placement for them both, just a short walk from the large expanse of land (hidden from muggles) where the Magical Creatures Sanctuary was located, Albus’ dream job.

After school, Albus took a while before he decided what he wanted to do. Whilst Scorpius studied Healing, Albus was a little lost. He tried Muggle University, he tried a Potioneering apprenticeship, he started a desk job with his dad at the Aurors office, and even spent three weeks at Weasleys Wizard Wheezes, but none of them stuck. It caused a few arguments between them, what with his inability to hold down a job. Eventually, Albus’ Uncle Charlie convinced him to spend six weeks down in Romania to study dragons with him (the longest and hardest six weeks of Scorpius’ life, as he was stuck in London starting his new job in the Dark Curses department at Saint Mungos). It was then Albus decided that magical creatures was his calling, something Scorpius had been telling him since their fifth year at Hogwarts (but he refrained from telling Albus he told him so).

There was another round of green flashing lights, this time a different siren ringing through the streets and Scorpius sat up, his curiosity getting the better of him. He just caught sight of the end of the flashing lights turning the corner and shrugged. It was a wizard emergency service fire engine, unseen to muggles and ridiculously fast to get to their destination. The wizarding emergency services worked in similar ways to the Knight Bus, you just have to call for it with your wand and it’s there in a moment.

Scorpius slumped back to the sofa, curling up against Albus and wrapping a blanket over him. “Anything interesting in the news?”

“Just the usual, hyping up for James’ Quidditch match on Wednesday, and mysterious activity that appears every week, that sort of thing,” Albus said as he folded the paper and pushed his (Scorpius’) glasses into his hair.

Scorpius took advantage of his now-free lap and shuffled around, straddling Albus with his arms around his neck, hands buried into the back of his curly hair. He was letting it grow slightly, meaning it was wilder than usual.

“So, we have a day off together for the first time in forever, how do you want to spend it?” Scorpius asked, grazing his lips over Albus’ cheekbones.

“I think just like this would be perfect,” Albus responded, grabbing Scorpius by the waist and pulling him impossibly close, connecting their lips hungrily, like he’d been deprived of them for weeks. Scorpius responded just as enthusiastically, his hands running rampage through his raven locks and causing the pair of glasses to fall ungracefully to the sofa.

Albus slipped his hands under Scorpius’ jumper, sending a shiver down his spine as skin collided with skin. As their distance closed completely, Scorpius couldn’t help but smile internally. He loved Albus, he loved everything about him. Even when he was angry at him, he loved him. Life makes love look hard, but it’s not all that hard when you have someone who is willing to turn time for you, who will go to the end of the Earth for you.

Albus broke from his lips to trail kisses along his jaw and down his neck, nibbling slightly on Scorpius’ fair skin. “Shall we take this to the bedroom?” Albus mumbled against his neck.

Just as Scorpius was about to agree in the form of a pleading moan, there was a spitting from the floo fireplace and Tilda let out an almighty bark, scaring Scorpius right off Albus’ lap. Albus snickered, barely trying to hide his amusement at Scorpius’ clumsiness.

“Scorpius?” came a voice from floo.

“Healer Abbot,” Scorpius said, jumping up from the floor and making his way over to the fireplace. He sent an Albus a quick confused look before kneeling down. “Is everything okay?”

“I know it’s your day off and I hate to be the one asking, but there’s an emergency and we’re understaffed in the emergency department,” she briefly explained. Scorpius felt his heart sink because as much as he wanted this day with Albus, he also knew he couldn’t say no. He was too scared to turn around to see the look of hurt on Albus’ face, so he kept his eyes firmly on the flames, trying to also ignore the tears prickling at his eyes.

“I work in paediatrics now,” Scorpius pointed out, hoping it was somehow a mistake.

Healer Abbot seemed to sigh. “I know, but we’re asking you because,” – she took a deep breath – “there’s been a fire at an orphanage in Surrey, we don’t yet know how many have been injured but they’re all on their way here. We need you; you have experience in both the emergency department and paediatrics.”

Scorpius then turned to Albus to see a sad and worried smile on his lips. Albus got up and collapsed at his side, rubbing his back gently.

“Go,” he said, softly. “Those kids need the best healer there is.”

Scorpius nodded slightly, looking back at the face of Healer Abbot in the flames. “I’ll be in as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, Scorpius!” She said before disappearing.

Scorpius collapsed backwards, feeling the weight of his heart drag him down. “I’m sorry, Al. We should have known a whole day to ourselves was too good to be true.”

“Don’t worry, there’s always next time, and we had last night too,” Albus assured, standing up and offering a hand to Scorpius. He took it and let himself be pulled to his feet. “I’ll make you some lunch whilst you get ready.” Albus briefly kissed him and squeezed his hands. Scorpius was reminded, once again, why Albus was the best thing in his life.

He watched him until he disappeared completely into the kitchen before turning and making his way upstairs and into their shared bedroom. There was a part of him that knew mourning his only day off was utterly selfish. He loved his job; it was the best thing in the world. Healing people, saving them, it’s what gave him a purpose. People no longer saw him as dark and dangerous because he saved lives every single day.

But he loved Albus too. And leaving him on a day they were supposed to spend together, was supposed to be just them, hurt more than anything. Who knows when they’d get this opportunity to just _be_ together with no distractions or disturbances again? It certainly wasn’t in the near future. They just always missed each other, and any time they were together, they had to spend it sleeping. Though, Scorpius was thankful for those nights tangled in bed sheets and long, awkward limbs.

With a heavy heart, Scorpius changed into his lime green healer robes and ran a brush through his hair. He couldn’t find where Albus had put the bottle of gel and instead grabbed a hairband and used that to push the fringe out of his face. As he stared at his reflection in the mirror, he saw all the parts of himself that he hated: the bags under his eyes practically as black as Albus’ hair from the long nights he put in at the hospital, the very slight set of freckles over his nose that Albus loved for some odd reason. His lips were far too chapped and bruised from the teenage habit of biting them that he never got out of, and his nose was much too pointed for his liking.

He took a deep breath and turned away, exiting the room and half-jogging down the stairs. “Albus? Have you seen my wand?”

“In here,” he called back. Scorpius made his way into the kitchen where Albus was just wrapping up his lunch and packing it in his bag. Scorpius spotted his wand on the dining table and picked it up, also placing it in his bag. “I swear you’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached to your neck,” he teased, quickly pulling him in for a kiss.

“I should go,” he mumbled against his lips, reluctantly pulling away. They walked back into the living room where Scorpius said a quick goodbye to both Tilda and Simba, who both seemed just as upset as Albus did that he had to leave. When he stood back up, Albus handed him his bag. “I’m really sorry, Al.”

“It’s not your fault. It makes me happy knowing you’re doing what you love and saving lives, now go out there and do what you do best.”

Albus pulled Scorpius in for another kiss, bunching his robes in his fists. His stomach danced around, because he may have been kissing Albus for ten years but he still would never get used to the feeling of kissing the love of his life. Scorpius hands wound their way back into Albus’ hair, when he pulled away with a sudden realisation.

“My glasses!” He exclaimed, turning to the sofa where he’d last seen them. “Where are they?”

“Do you need them?”

“To see, yes!”

“Only to read,” Albus tried, but knelt down and started searching between the gaps in the sofa.

“Do you know how much reading my work requires, Al?” Scorpius said. “There is a lot of paperwork and files and signing things that I have to do, so yes I need my…” – Albus pulled his glasses from the sofa and held them up in show – “glasses.”

“You’re welcome,” Albus stood and tiptoed to kiss his cheek.

“Thank you.”

“Now, go on! Go save some lives,” Albus encouraged, pushing him towards the floo. Scorpius put his glasses away in his bag and stepped into the floo with a handful of powder. He blew a kiss to Albus before shouting his destination and disappearing in a sea of green flames.

Chaos.

He walked into complete and utter chaos.

The sounds of a busy hospital waiting room was the first thing that came to his senses, followed quickly by the faint smell of disinfectant and burning filled his nostrils. He walked out of the floo zone and further into the hospital, having to dodge a patient coming past on a stretcher and a couple of healers following after it, shouting out the patients vitals.

There was a time when this environment sent his heart beating through the roof and his breathing to stop short in his chest. There was a time when all he could think about when someone said the word ‘hospital’ or ‘illness’ was his mum and how she spent more time in these four walls than she did in her own home. He wasn’t sure at which point these four walls turned from something that sends his anxiety into overdrive to somewhere that helps keep him calm. At some point, the connotations had changed and therefore, the hospital wasn’t so scary anymore. It wasn’t a place to die; it was a place to save people.

Scorpius dodged his way through the waiting room, giving a brief wave to Rita on the reception desk before jogging up the stairs to the first floor. When he moved to paediatrics, Scorpius got his very own office (that would one day hold his title of head of the department) situated on the first floor, right next to the long-term children’s ward. They didn’t have too many patients in as of yet, but Scorpius knew that after today, those beds will start being filled.

As he entered his office and threw his bag down, extracting his glasses and wand, he couldn’t help but feel a little anxious about what the day would bring. Scorpius had been a qualified healer for four years, graduating from the Saint Mungos healing programme at twenty-one, and had worked in three different departments.

He started out in the emergency department just as he finished his studies, taking on the full-time role after he graduated and he loved it. It was fast-paced and kept him distracted from a lot of things. At the time he was still struggling with being in a hospital environment, so the constant work helped him move on from those struggles. However, the stress eventually caught up to him, he stopped sleeping and eating, so Albus staged an intervention. Scorpius agreed to move wards and his second chosen ward was the Magical and Dark Curses department.

He was there for three weeks before he was transferred to paediatrics, mostly with the help of his supervisor, Healer Abbot. Scorpius still – even two year later – didn’t like thinking about his time on that ward. It was horrific and sent him back years in his self-recovery. Scorpius took a month’s leave at the time in which he moved back into the Manor with his dad. Albus had gone to Romania a week into Scorpius’ departmental move, which meant his anchor was halfway across the country. But there was no way he was calling Albus back when he’d finally found his dream job.

He considered quitting healing altogether and taking the History of Magic job at Hogwarts, but his father had convinced him to go back. And he was forever thankful he did. Paediatrics was his calling, which he should have always known. It was a much calmer ward, he didn’t have to deal with as much loss as down in emergency or the dark curses ward, and any controversy surrounding his name never mattered because kids didn’t care about that sort of thing. Scorpius fell in love with each and every patient and he fell back in love with healing again, something that was greatly needed. Now, he wouldn’t change the paediatrics department for the world.

However, just for the day, Scorpius would have to stomach the stresses of the emergency department, so that’s exactly what he would do.

He jogged back down the flight of stairs to the emergency department, heading over to the reception so he could quickly clock in and within second, Healer Abbot was calling his name. Scorpius jumped into action following her towards the door just as it opened to reveal a patient on a stretcher – a young boy – and the healer that had brought him in. Scorpius waved his wand, non-verbally casting a spell he’d learnt in his early teens that showed the vital signs of the patient as they walked.

“His name is Timmy Hope, he’s eleven years old and was one of the last out of the building. He’s got third degree burns pretty much covering his body, we tried to treat as much as we could on the way here but it was quite difficult. We gave him a potion for the pain, but he fell unconscious about three minutes ago. He’s stable, but we’re not sure how long for,” the healer spoke all the way to the free hospital bed – they were rapidly running out.

“Thank you,” Scorpius said.

“I thought you were off today,” she said as they moved Timmy over from the stretcher and onto a real bed.

“So did I,” Scorpius responded before she disappeared out the door.

Scorpius worked on Timmy’s burns which were covering eighty percent of his body. He knew a few spells, but none of them seemed to be working as well as they should be. Healer Abbot worked on bringing Timmy back to consciousness. He would have thick smoke clouding his lungs at this point. They were unsure how long he was in the building for, but any amount of smoke was bad for your lungs – especially for children who were still growing.

The more Scorpius worked on the little boys burns, the more aggravated they seemed to be becoming. Scorpius widened his eyes and stepped back a little.

“Hannah,” – the healer looked up as he said her name – “this fire, what do we know about it?”

“Not much, the Aurors are investigating, why?”

“These are fiendfyre burns, this was no accident.”

Fiendfyre was a nasty and difficult thing to treat. It didn’t react to normal salves, potions or spells and most of them only seemed to make it worse. There was a potion used to treat it, but Saint Mungos no longer supplied it – or at least not in the quantities it would no doubt be needed – due to the rarity of most of the ingredients needed for it; including, but not limited to, Phoenix tears.

Scorpius left Timmy in the faithful hands of Hannah as he ran from the emergency department to the apothecary on the third floor. He scanned his wand to grant him access and ran to the front desk, quickly asking if there were any fiendfyre-treatment potions on hand. Luckily, there was – at least enough for Timmy – and Scorpius took that and asked them to phone around as many apothecaries as possible to see if any supplied the potion, including any in Knockturn Alley.

When he returned to Timmy’s bed, Hannah was pulling a white sheet over him and Scorpius’ heart plummeted to the floor.

“We lost him, I’m sorry, Scorpius.”

He’d almost forgotten the pain of losing a patient. It was rare in the children’s ward, as most suffered from long-term curable illnesses, or long-term incurable ones that had them moving onto other wards before they crumbled to their illnesses. He did still lose patients, of course, but every time he did it felt so much worse than the previous time. He’d thought he’d get used to it, he thought the emptiness and hollowness would become familiar, but it never, ever got easier.

Scorpius nodded a couple of times, his head moving rapidly despite his brain telling him to stop. The worst thing about losing was that it wasn’t over as soon as the light burnt out, there was still so much more navigating in the dark to be done. Though the reports can wait till later, there were others in need of his help.

The morning passed in a giant blur. He barely remembers how many children he treated. It was the summer holidays and therefore all of the kids were home from Hogwarts – those that were old enough to go anyway – and the orphanage was full to the brim with kids. He treated a fair few of the carers, and lost a young volunteer just before he took his lunch. Or was forced to take his lunch.

As he collapsed into his chair in his office and pulled the pot of pasta that Albus had prepared for him out of his bag, Scorpius suddenly couldn’t stomach anything. This was the very reason he had to move on from the emergency department, and one morning back had already started to take its toll. He stared at his lunch for ages, before picking up his fork and stabbing a pasta piece angrily. There was a knocking at his door that allowed him to momentarily forget his food without feeling guilty.

“Come in,” he called.

He certainly didn’t expect Harry Potter to enter his office, looking just as tired and weary as Scorpius felt. But, he supposed it wouldn’t be long before the Aurors come poking their noses in. However, seeing Harry sent a wave of calm through him (something that never would have happened ten years ago).

“Sorry to interrupt your lunch,” he said as he entered, coming in and taking a seat opposite him.

“No worries, you can answer to Al later on why I didn’t finish it,” he joked, placing the lid back on the tub.

“By all means carry on, you must be exhausted. I thought you had today off; I was quite surprised when your name came up earlier. Good spot on the fiendfyre, though.”

It was a compliment, but it didn’t feel like Scorpius should be rewarded for such a thing. Despite himself, he forced a smile. “Thanks, not so great for the patients though. I assume that’s what you’re here to discuss?”

“Can’t a guy just drop in to see his son-in-law?” Harry tried, but he knew it felt flat almost instantly. “How positive are you that it’s fiendfyre?”

“I’d bet my job on it, I’ve only seen that once before about two weeks before I transferred departments, it’s a nasty thing. I assume it was gone by the time you arrived at the orphanage?”

It made him sick to his stomach, the very thought that this wasn’t an accident but rather a planned attack. Someone had actively gone out of their way to attack children, with something as vicious and violent as uncontrollable flames. The death count was already sickeningly high, with three children and a carer at the scene of the crime and then two children and a volunteer here. There was a carer with his life on the line downstairs that also didn’t look good.

“It was basically ash by the time we got there, luckily our fire department is readily trained and arrived pretty promptly,” he said, a hint of hopefulness in his tone.

“So, do you think it was done on purpose?”

“The fiendfyre spell is a particularly difficult one to master, none of the kids would be able to do that, not even accidentally. So, it’s ruled as an attack, yes.”

Scorpius fiddled with his hands under the desk, digging his nails into his palm. A short silence settled over them and Scorpius used it as an opportunity to go through Timmy’s case file. His worst habit after losing a patient was going through and seeing if there was any way the situation could have been handled differently. If that little boy – who would have been heading to Hogwarts that September – could have survived and lived a long and happy life.

“I don’t know how you do it,” Harry spoke, almost too quietly. Scorpius looked up and saw he was reading the case file upside down. “Healing, losing patients, I could never.”

“And chasing after dark wizards is much better?” He asked, incredulous. Harry gestured vaguely and shrugged, stuck for words. “It’s not all losing, you know? Healing, in the wider sense of the word, is saving people.”

“I guess I never really thought about it like that, I usually see the tragic side of your job,” he gestured to the case file.

“And I see the tragic side of yours. Killing is one thing, but slaughtering children; I can’t even fathom that. This person – or people – must be in a truly dark place.” Harry looked at him for a moment, almost like he was studying him. There was a hint of something – pride, maybe? – in his eye, but it was gone in a second as he coughed and leapt forward in his chair.

“Both of our jobs have a difficult side that never get easier,” he said. “I should be off, but I’ll keep you updated with the case. We’re trying our best to ID all the victims now, but it seems most of the records have been destroyed.”

Scorpius nodded his head glumly. He had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach that as soon as he left the quiet of his office, the day would go from bad to worse. They both stood, both now seemingly lost for words in the height of this horrific event. It’s awful, he thought, how he woke up to an orange glow from the sun in his bedroom and his arms around his husband, and these children woke up to an orange glow of flames and screams from their friends.

Scorpius put his lunch back away in his bag, knowing it would now go untouched for the rest of the day, and followed Harry out the office.

“Thanks for stopping by,” Scorpius said, “even if it was under these circumstances.”

“I feel like I haven’t seen you or Al in ages,” Harry commented as they slowly made their way to the staircases.

“I feel like I’ve hardly seen Al as well,” he chuckled slightly, even though the confession hurt. He missed him, even though he slept next to him, even though he was with him that morning, he missed just being able to be with him. “We’ll be at dinner on Tuesday at the Burrow,” Scorpius reminded.

“Yes, I’ll see you then.” They gave each other a slight wave as they went in opposite directions.

Scorpius was about to head to the reception desk to find a new patient when the doors were burst open so forcefully they bounced off the wall behind them. Scorpius put down the file he’d picked up and immediately brandished his wand. He ran over to see a little girl curled up in a ball on a stretcher being levitated by a healer. She was rocking back and forth slightly, her brown curly hair knotty and wild, falling in front of her face. She was picking at her nails and Scorpius thought she might have been whimpering slightly.

“Is she from the orphanage?” He asked as soon as he reached them.

“She is, she won’t tell us her name, we could barely get close enough,” the healer responded.

“It’s been hours,” Scorpius said, “I thought they cleared the building.”

“She was hiding, and we don’t know how, but she seems to be unhurt from the fire.”

They brought the girl into a private room away from the bustle of the waiting room and as soon as the door was sealed closed, she stopped rocking. With a bit of prompting, she moved from the stretcher onto the bed and Scorpius smiled kindly at her.

“Hi,” he spoke softly. “My name’s Scorpius, and if you’ll let me I’m going to be your healer.” The girl barely looked at him, but she stopped picking at her nails. There was dirt caked underneath them, as well as covering her clothes. From the outside, she seemed unhurt from the flames, but a nasty wheezing and cough suggested the smoke had entered her system somehow. Scorpius – taking a risk – perched on the side of her bed. “Can you tell me your name?”

She looked at him then through her curtained curly hair, revealing the bluest of eyes he’d ever seen. Her cheeks were black with ash – or dirt, Scorpius couldn’t tell – but there was a slight pinkness hiding behind it. He smiled at her again, hoping he could give her some form of comfort or warmth. She was shaking slightly, so Scorpius slowly rose and grabbed a blanket from a set of drawers. When he settled back down, he opened the blanket and held it out to her. A slight nod told him he had permission to wrap it around her, which he did as gently as he could.

“Amelia,” she mumbled. “Amelia Caron.”

“Hi,” Scorpius said again, his voice now nearly a whisper. “Would it be okay if I did some checks, Amelia?”

Amelia nodded slightly and Scorpius smiled before slowly getting his wand out. He explained everything he was doing as he did them, making sure she didn’t feel scared when hearing a new spell or something strange would happen to her body. He found, for the most part, she was unharmed by the fire aside from an unhealthy amount of smoke in her lungs. He performed a few spells that would help her breathe properly and asked another healer to prepare a detoxing potion for her.

“Are you feeling better now?” Scorpius asked, taking the seat on the end of her bed again.

“I feel warm,” she mumbled. Scorpius reached out slowly to place the back of his hand on her forehead before withdrawing his wand to check her temperature, which came up as a little bit too high.

Scorpius stood up. “I’m going to get a potion for you for that, will you be okay on your own for a short while?”

“Yes, sir,” she said quietly.

He smiled at her. “It’s just Scorpius.” She nodded briefly as he left the room.

He walked to the reception and greeted Rita and the couple of other healers surrounding it. Now that the hospital had finally calmed, everyone had a minute to breathe.

“Rita, would you mind calling up to the apothecary to get me a Pepper Up ready, please?”

“No worries,” she replied, picking up the phone.

“How is she?” Healer Abbot asked as Scorpius took off his glasses, they were beginning to give him a headache.

“There’s something up,” he spoke. “I just don’t know what it is yet, but I have a hunch. There’s something more going on and I’m going to keep her in longer for check-ups.”

“Healer Malfoy, you’re keeping her in on a hunch?” There was a hint of scolding to her tone, even though she technically wasn’t his supervisor anymore.

“She has to be kept in for observation anyway; besides, she’ll be in my department, not down here. And something’s going on, I know it. It was you who taught me to trust my instincts, remember?” He asked, smiling slightly as he pushed off the side of the reception desk.

“I do indeed, you grew up so fast,” she said, reaching up to ruffle his hair. Scorpius quickly ducked away and sent her a cheeky grin. He was known as ‘the baby’ when he first joined the team as he was the youngest by far. Most people don’t make it through the programme as quickly as he did, and especially don’t get a job almost immediately following it. He considers himself very lucky to be as young as he is and so far into his career.

“After you’ve finished with Amelia, go home, Scorpius,” Healer Abbot said.

Scorpius stopped walking away. “What’s the final count?”

“Three children, one volunteer and one carer, but there’s a girl in surgery and it doesn’t look good,” she said sadly.

“We can’t save everyone,” he said, if only to convince himself more than others. She nodded along and Scorpius backed up, heading up to the apothecary to collect the potion for Amelia before back down to her room.

It was earlier than he expected when the transfer got approved and Scorpius took her up to paediatrics himself. She wasn’t quite warming up to any other healers except for him and would go back to her shy and reclusive self whenever someone else entered the room. When she was finally settled in the ward with some of the other children, Scorpius sat down on the end of her bed again.

“My shift has finished now,” he spoke, and hated how wide her eyes got with fear. “But, I assure you that you are in very good hands, and I’ll be back tomorrow, okay?”

“You promise?”

“Cross my heart, hope to die,” he promised, drawing a cross over his heart. This got a brief smile out of her. “Be good, yeah?”

This time, she giggled. “I’m always good.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Amelia.” Scorpius brushed a hand through her knotty hair, hoping the healers would give her a bath before they put her to bed.

“Call me, Millie. My dad used to call me Millie.”

“Okay, Millie,” he said, feeling his heart swell. The dangers of his job, Scorpius soon realised, was that he felt so attached to every single one of his patients. Millie grabbed his hand and gave it a quick squeeze before letting him go.

Scorpius retreated back to his office, quickly finishing the paperwork on all of his patients for that day, feeling heavy-hearted when they were the notes of the patients he sadly lost. He approached Lewis and Sofia, the two healers that would be on the night shift, to inform them on Amelia and her condition, asking them to note down any symptoms they saw. When he was finally ready to leave, it was approaching dinner time, and Scorpius secretly hoped Albus hadn’t eaten yet, or started cooking, so they could order a takeaway and cuddle on the sofa.

When he finally stumbled through the floo and into their home, Albus was sat reading a book on the sofa with Simba and Tilda curled up around him. Scorpius smiled at the sight: Albus with his thick black-rimmed glasses that were falling down his nose, his messy black hair sticking up in all sorts of places. He had one hand running through Simba’s fur and the other holding the book.

“Are you reading Little Women?” Scorpius said by way of greeting. He was nearly finished with the book himself and it had been on his bedside table that morning.

“You said it was good, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Don’t worry, I didn’t lose your page,” Albus responded, then looked up as though he’d only just realised who he was talking to. A wide smile appeared on his face and he put the book down quickly – losing his page – as he removed himself from the dogs and the sofa to greet him. “You’re home earlier than I expected,” he said, giving him a brief kiss. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he mumbled against Albus’ lips, wrapping his arms around him and breathing him in; relishing in the fact that he had Albus back in his arms. “Movie and a takeaway?” Scorpius asked hopefully.

Albus pulled back slightly and ran a hand through his hair. “That kind of day?” Scorpius nodded. “I thought so, which is why I picked up these takeaway menu’s when I popped to the shops today and have already narrowed down the potential movies to three, figured I’d let you have the final say.”

Scorpius stole another kiss. “Sometimes you know me better than I know myself.”

Albus ordered in the food from some Italian takeaway that had newly opened with some great vegetarian options as Scorpius went to go get out of his work clothes and into something more comfortable – which meant a pair of Albus’ joggers and one of his jumpers. They spent the time waiting for the food debating over which movie to watch, whilst also trying to catch him up on what had happened that day at work. He told him about his concerns of Amelia, even though he still wasn’t sure where he fears had come from.

When the food finally arrived, they curled up on the sofa and began the film as they ate. They eventually fell asleep together on the sofa in each other’s arms, limbs entangled in ways that shouldn’t be possible. Scorpius felt content as he drifted off into sleep, feeling Albus’ hand in his hair soothing him to sleep. However, he couldn’t get Amelia from his mind and the overwhelming fear that something was much worse than originally anticipated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The lovely Nicole (@nicolejustdraws, twitter) has once again done a wonderful set of drawings for this fic!
> 
> Next update will be on Thursday :)
> 
> Kudos and comments make the world go around and I greatly appreciate every single one of them! Thank you for reading!  
> Find me on twitter: @sunshinescorp


	2. Diagon Alley

It was still dark when Scorpius woke the next morning with a crick in his neck that travelled down his spine. The only light was coming from the single streetlamp just outside their house where they hadn’t closed the curtains the previous night. He didn’t remember falling asleep, but they appeared to have slept through the night.

At some point, the blanket had become entangled between their legs, which were also tangled up like the roots of a tree. He was pinned down to Albus’ chest with his arms that were snaked around him and he could only just reach out for his wand on the coffee table to check the time: 5:21 am. His alarm was due to go off in nine minutes, as was Albus’. So, for those nine minutes he let himself relax into the hold of his husband.

The events of the previous day still weighed heavily on him. He hadn’t seen the hospital in that sort of distress in a long time, and no doubt it would still be just as chaotic today as they deal with the aftermath. Then there was Amelia, a young girl who Scorpius was worried about for seemingly no reason except a bad feeling in his stomach.

“What time is it?” Albus mumbled against his hair, shifting slightly.

“Nearly half past five,” he answered, watching the moon outside the window as it was slowly being replaced by the sun.

Albus let out a loud groan as he shuffled uncomfortably underneath Scorpius, eventually freeing his legs of their entwinement and wrapping them around Scorpius’ thighs, then pulling him closer, hugging him like he was a koala bear. Scorpius took his eyes off the growing sunlight now beginning to alight the sky and struggled to shuffle around so he was chest-to-chest with Albus, snaking his arms underneath him.

“Do we have to go to work?” Albus asked.

Scorpius sighed. “Sadly yes, it’s our own fault, really, for deciding to be adults.”

“I don’t want to be an adult anymore,” he whined, dragging out his words. Scorpius chuckled; lifting his head and forcing his eyes open to look at Albus. The golden glow of the sun danced over his freckles that painted his nose and cheeks, much more prominent than Scorpius’ own. He loved Albus’ freckles and dedicated his life to kissing every single one of them. He had forty-seven, Scorpius had counted them on more than one occasion.

The peace was interrupted when both of their alarms sounded at the same time, disturbing the dogs who immediately let out an almighty bark before Albus told them to calm down. Tilda was on the sofa in a second, her longs legs digging into Scorpius’ back as she greeted them with a morning kiss. He let out on ‘oof’ noise as Albus worked on getting her on the floor, which she eventually did.

“Well,” Scorpius groaned, “if I wasn’t awake before I certainly am now.”

He ungracefully rolled off the sofa, leaving the warmth of Albus’ arms. He just about landed on his feet, holding his hands out for Albus as they let out a simultaneous yawn. Albus grabbed his hands and let Scorpius pull him from the sofa and they leaned on each other on the walk into the kitchen.

The cold tiled floor on his bare feet sent a shiver down his back and he let out a little yelp along with an awkward skipped jump, causing Simba to mimic him with a similar yelp. Albus chuckled as he sorted the dogs food out and Scorpius sat on the floor to play with him. Tilda had stayed in the warmth of the living room and Scorpius couldn’t say he blamed her.

Once the dogs were happily fed and let out into the garden, Albus and Scorpius got started on their own food. Albus made their morning breakfast whilst Scorpius made sandwiches for their lunch. This was another one of those rare mornings where they started their work days at the same time and therefore could relish in each other’s company for a few short, yet sweet, moments. Scorpius abandoned his sandwich making for just a moment to take Albus up in a hug from behind, resting his chin on Albus’ shoulder.

“What if we just stayed here together, forget about work?” Scorpius mumbled.

He felt Albus chuckle. Albus moved the pan to an unlit part of the stove and shuffled around to face him. “I’m afraid your kids need you,” he said, slipping his hands beneath Scorpius jumper and resting them on his waist, tracing small circles on his hips with his thumb.

“And yours need you,” Scorpius replied, booping him on the nose with his own nose.

“My kids are animals,” Albus reminded.

“And mine act like animals,” Scorpius joked, earning a laugh from Albus. Scorpius pecked him quickly on the lips before turning away, making himself busy with the sandwiches.

“Have you ever thought about it?” Albus asked. “Having kids?”

Scorpius froze.

He had, in fact, thought about it. He worked with children, how could he not imagine having one of his own? But, every time he thought about it, he thought about the hardships of his own childhood: the bullies, the rumours, the hatred, the pain, the loneliness, the loss. And every time he thought about that, he became doubtful that he could give a child a better life than he had. He would want nothing but the best for his child, and he couldn’t provide that for them.

No matter how hard he tried, he would always be suspected. It was the curse of the Malfoy family name. It didn’t matter that ‘Potter’ was now added onto the end, people heard Malfoy first and that’s all they hear. Even years down the line, he’s still subject to nasty glares on the street, people still pull their children away from him, people still think he’s evil. His and Albus’ child would have that too, they’d be in the paper from the moment they’re brought into the family and they would never escape the rumours. Even Albus’ name was dragged through the mud more often than not.

It wouldn’t be fair to subject a child to that. He wouldn’t want to. So a child sounds great, someone they can pour all their love into, someone they could spoil and someone they could love unconditionally, but he couldn’t help but think of the cost to that child’s happiness.

“Scorpius?” Albus prompted, voice barely a whisper.

Scorpius sighed and turned to him. “We’re not having this conversation at six in the morning.”

Albus half-smiled. “Maybe it’s a bit of a heavy discussion to have before coffee. I was just… curious, I guess.”

Scorpius felt his heart pang as Albus turned away from him to finish off the breakfast and for the first time in a long time, an awkwardness settled in the air. He knew this conversation would come up eventually, though he expected it much earlier than this. They’d been married for four years, together for ten. A part of him knew Albus would want kids, he was great with them. He saw the way Albus looked at Teddys’ kids, like he loved them and would one day want his own.

Scorpius quickly finished the sandwiches off and wrapped them up. He started on the tea and coffee just in time for Albus to finish the eggs for their breakfast. They reached the table at the same time, one tea and coffee perfectly brewed, and two eggs with toast perfectly cooked and they both smiled at each other: one a forced sad smile, and one an _I’m-sorry_ smile.

They both settled down and Scorpius tried to ignore his shaking hands as he took a sip of his tea. They always shook now, it was a side effect of being cursed when he was younger, one that never seemed to lesson or go away. He put his tea down and latched one of his hands onto Albus’, only letting him eat with one hand.

“I have thought about it, a lot. If it’s what you want, don’t be afraid to talk to me about it,” he spoke, squeezing his hand.

“But is it what you want?”

“I… I don’t know,” he said honestly. Albus’ happiness meant more than his, and if Albus wanted children then he was willing to try his absolute hardest. He’d love them no matter what; he just hoped he could give them a better life.

“Talk to me.”

Scorpius released Albus’ hand and picked up his knife and fork to play around with his food, finding any excuse to distract his hands. A lump rose in his throat as tears threatened to pour from his eyes. He blinked them away and looked down at his food when he spoke.

“I don’t want any child having to bear the burden of the Malfoy name. I didn’t even want you to have it, it’s not worth it.”

The chair scraped across the floor as Albus pulled himself closer to Scorpius. He placed his hands on Scorpius’ knees and tapped a little rhythm so Scorpius would look at him.

“ _I_ wanted your last name, or do I need to remind you of the many arguments we had regarding that particular time-”

“You definitely don’t.”

“- point is, your name isn’t a burden, no more than mine is.”

Scorpius smiled and placed a hand over Albus’. “I’d still rather have your name.”

“It’s a good job you have it then,” Albus said as he leaned forward to peck his lips. “Now, eat, or you’ll regret it later and you’ll have me to answer to.” Albus sat back in his seat and started properly on his breakfast, eyeing Scorpius slightly to make sure he started eating too; which he did. “What time do you finish today?”

“It’s a late one, ten.” The thought of fourteen hour long shifts used to scare him, having to spend so long in a singular place and not knowing how the shift was going to go, but since moving to paediatrics he found he didn’t mind the long shifts so much. And on this particular day, he was eager to see how Amelia had spent her first night in the hospital.

Albus, on the other hand, hated Scorpius’ long shifts. He hated what they did to him, because being active and out for that long did take its toll on his energy and mental health. The exhaustion wasn’t fun, he admitted that, neither were the headaches that came with it, but he would take all that over being stuck in some boring desk job.

Once they’d eaten, they both slowly prepared themselves for their day at work. On mornings they spent with each other, they always left extra time for distractions such as morning kisses or dancing in the kitchen. They had never really left the ‘honeymoon’ phase of their relationship; every kiss still counted, every touch sent fire through his veins, every miniscule moment still mattered. It didn’t matter that he now had mapped every line on Albus’ body, had become familiar with the feel of his lips and the taste of his tongue, because loving Albus would never get old. Loving Albus will always be the best thing that ever happened to him.

So leaving him that morning – as it was every morning – was a struggle.

They said their goodbye’s at the front door, a bunch of mini kisses and long hugs before Albus had the strength to pull away and walk to work, turning back at the front gate for one last wave. Scorpius watched until he was out of view before retreating back into the house, locking the door and heading for the floo.

When he arrived at the hospital, it was nowhere near as chaotic as the previous day. He greeted people in passing as he headed up the stairs to the paediatrics ward and dropped his bag in his office. He ruffled through it, withdrawing his wand and then sighing once he’d realised he’d forgotten his glasses. He didn’t always need them, but he wasn’t prepared for the even bigger headache he’d have at the end of the day due to trying to read without them.

He pocketed his wand and headed out into the ward, catching Lewis just before he was about to leave.

“Anything happen with Amelia overnight?” He asked.

Lewis sighed. “She’s been a nightmare, screaming and crying almost constantly and none of us could figure out why. She kept saying she was in pain, but our pain potions weren’t touching it. We’ve had to put a shield charm around her bed because her magic was going awry and it was the only way we could contain it.”

“Was she not getting harmed from her own magic?”

“Not from what we could tell, but you’re right, there’s something more going on here,” Lewis said, confirming Scorpius’ suspicions. He thought perhaps he was being paranoid, but this proved he wasn’t. Scorpius looked passed Lewis and into the ward where she was sleeping softly, like none of the events of the night before had happened. “She’s asleep through a potion,” he explained when he caught sight of her in his eye line.

“Any other symptoms spotted?”

“I wrote them all down, but the main ones were her fever, that kept coming back, nausea, headaches, tired but restless,” he listed off. “Good luck with her today is all I can say,” Lewis said, patting Scorpius lightly on the shoulder before taking off.

Scorpius entered the ward quietly as most the kids were still asleep, recovering from the crazy events of the previous day. He stopped in front of Amelia’s bed and picked up her notes that were attached to the bed, reading through everything Lewis had just told him with slight difficulty. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully, but that would be an effect of the potion.

He couldn’t help but notice the bruises dotted up her arm, small yet multiple contusions blackening her pale skin. They hadn’t been there the day before, Scorpius would have spotted them. He made a mental note to ask her later where she’d come across them before leaving her to sleep and go about the rest of his work day.

The morning was spent how most mornings in the paediatric department went, checking on kids as they woke from their slumber. It was spent treating more burns than usual, but luckily the hospital had somehow managed to stock up on the fiendfyre burn potion as much as they could with hospitals from other parts of the world sending over their supplies in the wake of the tragedy.

It was just before his lunch break when Scorpius popped down to the emergency department to meet with a carer of Amelia’s that he’d ask to come in to talk to. Two of them had come along and were sitting in the waiting room for him. Scorpius recognised them from the day before; he had treated the man for minor injuries once the big overflow settled.

“Hannah, you free?” Scorpius asked as Hannah approached the reception desk.

“Give me two seconds,” she replied as she jotted something down on a piece of parchment. “What’s up?”

“Was just wondering if you’d like to speak to Amelia’s carers with me? I’d like a second ear.”

“I could spare ten minutes,” she confirmed and smiled at him, putting the file down and following him over to the man and woman sat in the waiting room chairs.

Scorpius greeted them and offered to take the meeting into the relatives room. The radio was playing and Scorpius turned it down slightly so they could talk better whilst Hannah went and got them all a coffee (and a tea for Scorpius) before they settled down to have a chat. Once settled, it was Scorpius who started with the questions, a quill and parchment ready to write down anything important.

“I’ve noticed a few things about Amelia, and my colleagues have to, and I was really just wondering what sort of child she’s like,” he started.

The man, Otis, looked at the woman as a hint for her to answer. Belinda, the woman, sighed slightly before answering. “Amelia has been with us for four years and at first she was great, a kind kid with a big heart. It was about two years ago things changed, when her magic started to show. We wasn’t sure if she would even be magical, her mother was a squib and her father a muggle.”

“How did Amelia end up in your care?” Hannah asked.

“Both her parents were aware of the magical world, she informed him when she got pregnant in case Millie turned out to be magical. Her mother, however, died during childbirth, leaving her with her father. He then moved to England with her and they were living happily, until he was diagnosed with cancer when she was four. He wasn’t given long to live and arranged for Millie to come to us when he passed on, only a few short weeks later and she was with us full time.”

Scorpius shuffled in his seat, bringing his ankle up to rest on his other knee. “So, you said she changed?”

“Her magic is confusing,” Otis said, taking over. “Unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. We’ve had plenty of children come through the orphanage to know how accidental magic works, but Millie’s was never ordinary. It came in random spurts, where she’d destroy her entire bedroom and then there’d been nothing for months. But in those months, she’d become quite sick with fevers and headaches, that sort of thing. Nothing serious, but it was always there.”

Scorpius wrote everything down as they spoke, scrunching his nose in confusion.

“Did you never bring her into the hospital?”

Belinda shook her head. “She’s had multiple appointments with our local doctor who comes to the orphanage to see the kids, it’s much easier for us, you see, but he was never concerned.”

“And this has been happening for two years?” Scorpius asked.

“Approximately.”

“Does she have any behavioural problems?”

“She tends to act out, particularly when her magic becomes uncontrollable, pretty bad mood swings and she doesn’t trust a lot of people. I was shocked when the healer on yesterday said you’d managed to let her treat you.”

“She adjusted to you pretty quickly, didn’t she, Healer Malfoy?” Hannah asked.

Scorpius pursed his lips and nodded, his brain moving a thousand miles per hour as he tried to figure out exactly what was happening. He felt like he’d heard of it before, a case in the back of his mind screaming at him to remember it, but he couldn’t for the life of him. He’d have to go through his old case files at some point, maybe he could take them home and go through them tonight.

“Thank you for coming in,” Scorpius said, standing. “I really appreciate it, and I’m very sorry for your loss, I can’t imagine how awful this must be for you.”

Belinda and Otis shared a sad look. “It’s been tragic, but all we can do now is try to rebuild, bring our kids home to us,” Belinda said with a sad smile.

“I wish there was more we could have done.”

“Oh, my dear,” she stepped forward and clasped her hands over his. “You’ve done everything you could have possibly done. We can’t thank you enough.”

Scorpius didn’t think he deserved to be thanked. They saved a lot of lives, yes, but they lost more than they bargained for too. Everyone in the hospital was feeling the sting of yesterdays tragedy, knowing that so many had come in and lost their lives. So many kids, too. One that would have been starting Hogwarts tomorrow.

Scorpius smiled at her and thanked her anyway. He was about to show them out when the quiet voice of the radio caught his ear.

_“There have been reports of an attack at Diagon Alley that is still ongoing. Aurors and Mediwizards have been called to the shopping town, but we are unsure as of yet how many casualties there are. This is the second attack in two days, after Head of Magical Law Enforcement, Harry Potter, confirmed that the fire at the orphanage in Surrey yesterday morning was indeed a planned attack. The healers at Saint Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries were swamped as casualty and casualty arrived there, and it looks like today will be just as busy. More news to follow.”_

“There’s been another attack?” Scorpius said, more to himself than anyone in the room.

“Looks like we’re in for another busy afternoon,” Hannah commented before she was out the door, ready for any emergency coming her way.

Scorpius showed Otis and Belinda back to the waiting room, unprepared for the flood of patients to overflow the waiting room like before. Hannah was already ordering healers around, sending patients with minor injuries to another department to clear beds for the load that would no doubt be incoming. Scorpius snuck back upstairs to deal with his own patients. The emergency department was enough for one day.

It was already much quieter upstairs compared to the bustling emergency department. After yesterday, that environment had become suffocating once again, like it had all those years ago. Instead, he tried to bury himself in working with the kids of yesterday’s terrible attack, checking they were all okay. Joseph, a young boy of seven, was talking to him about his older sister who was due back at Hogwarts for her second year the following day when he heard Amelia stir slightly.

He politely excused himself after making sure he was okay and made his way over, sitting on the end of her bed.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” he greeted. It was just past midday, but the potion had kept her asleep for as long as possible.

“Scorpius!” She beamed, suddenly alive and bouncing with joy. “I’m so happy you’re back! I didn’t like the others,” she moaned, crossing her arms.

Scorpius smiled and shook his head. “What’s wrong with them? They’re nice enough.”

“Not as nice as you though.”

Scorpius took his wand out and performed a couple of spells to check her vitals. “Lewis said you had a pretty rough night?” He asked, keeping it open for her to tell him her experiences.

“He wouldn’t listen to me!” She whined. “Everything hurt, I felt like I was on fire, but he kept saying nothing was wrong!”

“On fire?” She nodded. Scorpius furrowed his brows. “And how do you feel now?”

“I have a headache.”

“I’ll get you something for that. How about we get you some food as well?”

Millie shook her head. “I feel sick and like my belly is really full.”

“Do you mind if I take a look?”

She shook her head and lay back. Scorpius performed a few checks, wondering what it could possibly be that’s making her feel bloated but all the checks came back pretty clear. There were a few more bruises on her stomach that he hadn’t noticed before though and asked her where she might have gotten them from.

Amelia shrugged. “I get them all the time and I don’t know where from,” was her only explanation.

Completely and utterly stumped, Scorpius gave her a potion for the pain and fetched her a colouring book for something to do. He had a sandwich delivered to her as well, but she barely touched it aside from a few nibbles. His own stomach rumbled as he was dealing with another kid, but it was that exact moment that a paper plane found its way into the ward and landed in Scorpius’ hair. The kid he was with couldn’t help but let out an infectious laugh that made Scorpius smile.

He stepped away and took the plane from his hair, massaging his temples as he did to ease the headache that was growing from reading without his glasses. He unfolded the plane and sighed to himself when he read the message.

_We need you downstairs if possible._

_Healer Abbot_

Scorpius sought out the other healers on the paediatrics ward to let them know he’d been summoned downstairs and if they needed him to come and get him – after all, his loyalties lay with his department. He had to take a deep breath before jogging down the stairs, hearing the pushing of doors and the shouting of voices, the strangled cries and deep breaths of patients. He stopped at the reception desk for a quick breather.

“What’s happened?” He asked Rita on the desk when she had a spare moment.

“Every patient is a new mystery, people are coming in with injuries from loads of different curses, and we can’t even identify the majority of them.”

Scorpius swore underneath his breath as he picked up a random file and approached someone who had been sitting in the waiting room with a nasty gash across her face. He held a hand out for her and guided her to a cubicle. His best guess was that it was a gash from a _diffindo_ spell, and had unluckily cut right across her right eye. She would lose her sight and there was nothing Scorpius could do about it.

Just like there was nothing he could do with the kid who lost his middle finger or the man whose left ear had been cut off. And even though he could do something for the boy who’d been hit with an engorgement charm and the woman brought in on a stretcher suffering from the dancing legs curse, he still felt useless. It was a weird mixture between harmless spells and deadly ones. He only wished he hadn’t seen the little girl shaking from the Cruciatus Curse.

It only reminded him of his own shaking hands and aching muscles. The world started spinning around him, the room moving too fast for him to keep up. His head was pounding, an insistent bang drumming over and over in his temples. Scorpius gripped the edge of the bed of the patient he was with, rubbing his eyes. He could vaguely hear someone asking if he was okay, but it blended in with the now familiar chaos of the emergency department.

He took a deep breath, gripping the edge of the bed until his knuckles went white, trying his best to pull himself back to reality. Eventually, the sounds faded into the background and Scorpius flicked his eyes open, seeing the concern of the patient but also a couple of other healers who had come to his aid.

“Are you okay, Healer Malfoy?”

He blinked a few times. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said.

“Maybe you should take a break,” someone suggested. He nodded and backed away, letting others take over the patient he was treating – he didn’t even remember her name. He stumbled his way through the emergency department, barely noticing it had now dramatically calmed down from the initial chaos, and up the stairs to his office. Once there, he collapsed into his chair and let out a deep breath.

Scorpius checked the time, realising it was well past tea time and he still hadn’t eaten his lunch. His shift, however, was over in two hours. He didn’t even realise where the time went, barely remembers half the shift. He pulled his sandwiches out of his bag and took them to the fireplace where he threw in a little bit of floo powder and called Albus. The floo in his office was too small to transport, but perfect size for calling.

However, Albus didn’t answer, so Scorpius retreated back to his chair and curled up on it, munching away at his sandwiches that he’d much rather not be eating. Albus must be in the shower or something, which would be the only explanation for him not answering.

Scorpius sighed, abandoning his food – it tasted a little stale anyway – and went out in search for something to drink. He wasn’t a coffee man in the slightest, but there was no way he was getting through the next two hours without a little bit of a kick. He ordered a caramel latte from the café, pouring in more sugar than he could be bothered to count and took a large sip, burning his tongue slightly. Only then did he return to the emergency department and sought out Hannah, who was with a patient.

“Healer Abbot,” he called, getting her attention.

Hannah looked up at him. “My, my, Scorpius, you look like shit.”

He snorted a little. “Thanks. I’m heading back up to paediatrics, just so you know.”

“Of course, thank you for your help. I know the Aurors have been snooping around, so you may have to speak to them.”

Scorpius only nodded, waving a goodbye with his spare hand and trudged back up the stairs. As the night was falling, Scorpius spent the next two hours giving his patients their nightly potions and tucking them into bed. Whenever he was on the evening shift, he gathered all the kids around and read them all a story, one that they mutually picked out (which took much longer than necessary). He went ward to ward, making sure they were all free of pain and happy to go to sleep.

He left Millie’s ward till last and was surprised to see Joseph – another kid – sat on her bed and another little girl – Kimberly – sat in the chair next to her. Scorpius smiled to himself as he called the other two kids on the ward over to Millie’s bed and told them he was going to read them a book. They all got settled in and listened as he recited the story of Cinderella, a muggle fairy tale that was always a hit with the kids.

He had to carry Joseph back to his bed where he sorted his potions through an IV that would circulate his system for the night. Kimberly and the other two kids went back to their beds and patiently waited for him to fix them with their nightly medicine and hugged him goodnight. Kimberly hadn’t come from the orphanage; she was a long-termer who was in for Cystic Fibrosis – a disease that wizards and muggles have not yet figured a cure for.

He finally made it to Millie’s bed and she jumped on him in a hug.

“You’ve been gone all day!” She whined.

“I know, I’m sorry. There was an emergency downstairs,” he explained. She nodded, accepting his apology. “How are you feeling?”

Millie climbed back into the bed and shrugged. “Same as usual.”

“Are you in any pain?”

“A little bit, but the other healer gave me something in this,” – she held out her arm to show him the IV – “and it’s been okay since that.”

“Okay, that’s good. Do you think you’ll be able to sleep tonight?”

Millie shrugged again, and then a cheeky grin appeared on her face. “Maybe if you read me another story.”

Scorpius couldn’t help but smile himself. “Okay.”

So he read her another story – Snow White this time – and read slowly, in a low voice he knew would help her fall asleep. With every page he dimmed the light and encouraged her to close her eyes. Before the end of the book, she fell into a gentle sleep, but Scorpius finished it off for her anyway.

He then left the kids in the faithful hands of the night staff as he collected his things from the office – including a bunch of old case files - and clocked out, escaping from the suffocating hold of the hospital waiting room and into the warmth of his living room.

Except, his living room wasn’t all that warm. In fact, it was very, _very_ cold.

“AL?” He called out, wondering if his husband had already gone to bed. It wouldn’t be strange; Albus’ work days were long and hard and often took all his energy. He noticed Tilda and Simba didn’t immediately greet him, and it was strange to come home to an empty house. He tried not to panic, maybe Albus had taken them for a late night walk, and he walked into the kitchen to find some kind of explanation.

Which he did find. On the fridge was a note from Albus, in his scribbled handwriting and a badly drawn heart.

_Gone to the pub with people from work, be back later. Lily came to pick up the dogs so they wouldn’t be alone all night, she’s looking after them. I’ll see you when I get back, there’s lasagne in fridge, please eat it._

_I love you with all my heart, Albus x_

For what felt like the thousandth time that day, Scorpius sighed to himself. An empty house was not one he was used to. Even when Albus wasn’t here he had the tapping of paws on laminate flooring, the dogs only ever a room away – or even a seat away. His heart felt heavy as he grabbed the lasagne from the fridge and heated it up with a heating charm. He took the food up to his and Albus’ shared study – what had initially been the second bedroom got turned into a sort of library for all of Scorpius’ many books and they had put in two desks for whenever they wanted to bring their work home.

He put the food down and went searching for his glasses, knowing they would slightly help ease the headache that had been residing in his brain all morning. A part of him knew he should just go to sleep, but he never could sleep without Albus and there were more important things to be doing. When he found his glasses (somehow buried in the sofa, _again)_ , Scorpius settled in the study with the lights on a low setting, casting a golden serene glow. He turned on Albus’ record player with the flick of his wand and let the music fill the room as he shifted through file after file.

He wrote down all of Millie’s symptoms on a separate piece of parchment and went through plenty of different medical books to try and find a disease – or _something­ –_ that might have fit. Though hours later he had not yet come to any one conclusion, except the possibility of a blood malediction, which seemed to work in different ways for each patient. But then he couldn’t find any record – not in the books anyway – of a blood malediction with all the symptoms Millie was experiencing.

He was about to go through some old case files from when he was in the Dark Curses ward when he heard the rush of the floo. He pulled his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, waiting for a drunken Albus to stumble into the room, attracted to the light like a moth. Surprisingly, Albus didn’t stumble. He crept in, like he was expecting Scorpius to be fast asleep at his desk.

“You’re still up?” He asked, surprised, as he pulled up the chair from his desk and sat opposite him.

Scorpius nodded and rubbed his eyes again. “What’s the time?”

“Two a.m.,” Albus answered, followed by a yawn. “Thought you’d have been long asleep by now.”

“You know I can’t sleep without you. How was the pub?”

Albus shrugged. “Fine, we only had a few, needed to let off some steam after work.”

“Bad day?”

“It wasn’t the best, how about you? What’s all this?” He gestured vaguely to the books and papers, his arms so wild he nearly threw himself out of his chair at the same time. Maybe he’s just a little bit drunk.

“Just work stuff, trying to figure out what’s wrong with Amelia. What happened?” He asked, moving the subject away from himself. “At work?”

“We had a mooncalf give birth, but most of the babies died, so it was just…” Albus rubbed his eyes, “it was tough.” Albus reached over and grabbed one of Scorpius’ hands, playing with his fingers. “If you were here I would have just stayed home, I just wanted to be in your arms. I was hoping I could just crawl into bed and be the little spoon, for once,” he let out a little forced laugh.

“I’m sorry, Al,” Scorpius murmured, voice as low as the lighting.

Albus smiled sadly. “It’s okay, honey, I know how invested you get in your projects.”

Scorpius pulled his hands away. “She’s not a project.”

“No, no, I know that, I just mean -” Albus let out a little sigh – “I didn’t mean to make it sound like a bad thing, it’s great what you’re doing for her.” Albus made grabbing motions with his hands and Scorpius sighed, putting his hands back in Albus’. Albus rubbed little circles over his thumb and briefly smiled at him, and Scorpius knew he was only mad because he was tired and cranky. So, he dropped the mood and smiled back at him. “Come on, we both need to get some sleep, we have work tomorrow.”

It was very rare that Scorpius dreaded work, but the idea of another day like the past two made him want to crawl up into a hole. It didn’t seem like these attacks – now labelled as terrorism – was going to let up any time soon, and Scorpius dreaded where they might attack next.

He allowed Albus to pull him from his chair and they both dressed for bed before crawling under the sheets and wrapping themselves around the other. Scorpius – upon Albus’ request – played the big spoon for a change, allowing Albus to bury himself into Scorpius and rest. He was the perfect height to do so, and Scorpius would happily hold him in his arms.

“Goodnight, my love,” he mumbled into Albus’ hair, giving him a brief kiss before closing his eyes and letting himself fall into a gentle sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, would love to hear your thoughts so far!  
> Drawing again by the wonderful @nicolejustdraws (twitter)  
> Twitter: Sunshinescorp  
> See you on either monday and tuesday for the next chapter! (I'm moving house on monday so I'm unsure if I'll be able to post).


	3. Platform 9 3/4

Scorpius was terrified out of his sleep by his alarm, a harsh beeping noise intruding on his peace. He reached over, slamming his hand on top of the clock in an attempt to get it to shut up without having to open his eyes, and as soon as a peaceful quiet had once again settled over the room, Scorpius turned over. He expected for his arm to land lovingly over his husbands bare chest, but Scorpius was instead greeted with the cold sheet of an empty space.

Of course, because Albus had already got up and gone to work.

There was always a weird nostalgic feeling to waking up on September 1st and not being packed and ready to go back to Hogwarts. It was routine in his life for so long that now his life felt a little empty without the excitement of going back school and seeing his best friend for the first time in weeks. It had been years since he’d last made a trip to Platform 9¾, yet it felt like only yesterday he left the castle for the last time. 

Scorpius groaned to himself before dragging himself out of bed and into the shower, hoping the shock of cold water could wake him up and maybe rid his head of the ache he’d woken with. His late night combined with the early morning wake up was not going to bode well with his full shift at work. He felt sorry for Albus who got an hours less sleep than he did.

Once showered and dressed, Scorpius made his way downstairs, feeling weird when he wasn’t greeted by Tilda and Simba before remembering they were staying with Lily. There was a note (the size of a letter) on the fridge from Albus, so Scorpius made a bowl of cereal before plucking it from the fridge and reading it as he ate.

_I didn’t want to wake you to say goodbye after you hardly slept last night, I think I fell asleep well before you did. I hope this thing with Amelia and the attacks isn’t getting to you too much, I know how personally these things can affect you and I’m sorry we don’t have more time to talk about it._

_Lily is coming before you head off to work to drop Tilda and Simba off, and I think it’s your dads turn to come and walk them today, might want to send him an owl so he’ll remember._

_I hope today is better for you and don’t forget about the family dinner tonight!_

_I love you to the moon and back, my sunshine._

_Albus xx_

It was funny that Albus thought _he’d_ be the one to forget the family dinner when it was always Scorpius reminding Albus of it. It was a monthly thing, the first Tuesday of every month, the Potter-Malfoy-Granger-Weasley-Delacour-Lupins (and whatever other last name this huge family decided to adopt) would meet for a family dinner hosted at the Burrow. Scorpius always looked forward to them, though Albus always pretended he hated them, but Scorpius knew he secretly loved them and seeing all of his family.

He got up to make himself a tea in his to-go flask that Lily had gifted he and Albus at Christmas the year before (personalised with their initials on them) when he heard the _whoosh_ of the floo from the living room, followed by the familiar bark of his pets. There was a pitter-patter across tiled flooring and Tilda was jumping over him before he had the chance to greet her properly.

“Hey kids!” He beamed, bending down so both of them could get his attention at the same time. “How have they been?” He asked Lily as she entered the kitchen, looking a little bewildered and holding their leads.

She placed them down on the dining table and shrugged her jacket off. “They’ve been golden, I took them on a quick walk before coming here so they should be worn out until - Albus said your dad was coming?” Scorpius nodded. “Yeah, they should be fine till then.”

“And you fed them this morning?”

“Of course I did, dummy,” she chuckled. Once the dogs had calmed, Lily came swooping in her own hug from him. “How have you been? Bet the hospitals been manic,” she said, pouring herself a coffee from the decanter. Scorpius was going to head into work early to see Amelia, but he guessed he was stuck with Lily until he actually had to leave for work.

He took a seat opposite her with a tea in a regular cup. “It’s been insane,” he agreed. “And I don’t know what it is about today, but it feels like it’s only going to get worse.”

Lily smiled at him sadly. “I hope not, all this is already scary enough and dad has no idea who’s causing it. Mum said it’s like the build up to the war all over again.”

“Does your dad think they’ll attack again?”

Lily nodded and a silence fell over them, broken only by Simba slurping water loudly from his bowl. A shiver travelled down his spine and Scorpius wrapped his hands tighter around his mug to stop them from shaking. He took a shaky sip of his tea before a wave of nausea washed over him and he had to push it away from him.

Lily reached over and grabbed his hands. “Are you okay?”

Scorpius looked at her and forced a smile onto his face. “Of course.”

Lily didn’t seem convinced, but she never pushed him and instead squeezed his hand. She quickly finished off her coffee before waving it over to the sink with her wand and making it wash itself up.

“I should be off, got to get to work,” Lily said, standing up and pulling her coat back on. “I’ll see you later at the Burrow?”

“You will. I finish at six, so Al and I will be a little late but we’ll be there,” he assured. She smiled and leaned down to give him a kiss on the cheek. With a brief goodbye, he was seeing Lily out at the floo.

Scorpius washed up from the little breakfast he’d manage to have before heading to his study. He gathered up all the files he’d made last night on Amelia – all of his possible theories on her illness that were all, most likely, wrong. He put them in his bag along with his glasses and wand and headed to work a little early.

The hospital was already busy and it was only ten, the aftermath of the past two days carrying through into today. He waved to Rita on the reception desk who responded with an exaggerated sigh as she tried to deal with the patient in front of her. Yesterday was nowhere near as dramatic as the orphanage attack, but it seemed the long days and nights for everyone working was taking its toll.

Scorpius had to worm his way through the crowded waiting room to the stairs where he quickly jogged up them and locked himself away in his office. He rubbed his eyes before sorting out his desk, placing away patient files that had been completed into a drawer, having one pile for open cases and spreading out Amelia’s in front of him. He got a book from the bookshelf in the corner of his room with a wave of his wand and opened it to the page on known blood maledictions, shoving his glasses on in the process.

He, once again, came up empty.

None of Amelia’s symptoms seemed to match any of them, though he knew that if it _was_ a blood malediction, then it would be difficult to diagnose. All of them are so different, no two are the same, especially if it was a curse that ran in families, like the one his own mother suffered from. He closed that page and tried thinking of other possibilities, deciding that it was best to see Amelia again.

He left his files in disarray with his glasses perched on top of the files and locked the door behind him, walking into Amelia’s ward. Lewis was at the side of her bed looking like he was trying to calm her, whilst Millie was screaming at him to go away.

“WHERE’S SCORPIUS?” She was screaming, and he entered a quick jog to be at her side.

“Hey, Millie, I’m here,” he said in his most soothing voice, dropping onto her bed. He looked at Lewis with a _what’s-going-on_ look, but Lewis only shrugged, clearly at just as much of a loss at him. Scorpius placed a hand on Millie’s forehead, seeing the bead of sweat across her skin. She was incredibly hot, her fever on a whole new level.

“I don’t feel very well,” she cried, tears now streaming down her face.

Lewis spoke up. “She started screaming in her sleep, then when she woke up she was incredible hot, kept saying her head was going to explode. She’s also been sick, oh and that bruise on her eye came out of nowhere.”

There was an angry purple bruise circling a singular blue eye that _definitely_ was not there the day before, just as the other bruises he’d found yesterday weren’t there either. Scorpius waved his wand to check her vitals, seeing her temperature at an alarming high. He cast a cooling charm to help cool her, telling Lewis to fetch another potion for her. The ones he’d assigned the day previous were clearly not helping in anyway.

He tried everything to get her temperature down, but nothing seemed to be working. Amelia was panicking which was only making matters worse so he issued a calming draught (he was always reluctant to do so, but this time it was essential in order to get her condition under wraps). Eventually, however, her fever calmed down and her headache stopped being so painful. The nausea turned into bloating which meant she was reluctant to eat any breakfast, but he managed to get her to eat a little.

He felt like he’d been with her for ages, however it was only about half an hour when he finally managed to get her to settle with a colouring book. He only got around to one other patient when Hannah stormed into the ward, panting slightly.

“Scorpius, there’s been another attack,” she said. He felt his blood run cold, a shiver travelling down his spine. “We need you on the scene.”

He gaped. “On the scene? Hannah, I don’t go out to emergencies anymore, you know that,” he protested. He’d done it before, a couple of times when big tragedies happen, like the time the Knight Bus crashed into a muggle bus on London Bridge, harming dozens of wizards and muggles, both on and off the buses.

“I know, Scorpius, but you’re the best healer we have and we need the best,” she said, making him sigh. This was another reason he moved from emergency to paediatrics, the fast pace environment made him sick to his stomach. Seeing the casualties out in the field, with screaming passerbyers and injured patients, caused his anxiety to peak. It was nerve-racking. Out there, every moment mattered, every healing spell and potion prescribed could be the difference between life and death.

Out in the field, there was no room for mistake. Not when it could easily cost someone’s life.

“Hannah, I’m happy to come down to emergency to help out but-”

“It’s Platform 9 ¾, there are kids out there, Scorpius, they need you.”

“Please don’t guilt me into this,” he begged.

He begged, but he already knew he was going to do this. Of course he was, he knew they needed him and he couldn’t say no to anyone in need of help. It drove him insane, but Albus said it was one of the best things about him.

“Okay, fine,” he said, already walking out of the childrens’ ward and down the stairs. Hannah followed him, thanking him over and over.

Once downstairs, Scorpius saw the team getting ready to go out to the Platform and joined them, shrugging on a large coat that identified him as a healer. He was passed a bag full of potions and medical supplies that he threw over his shoulder. He recognised a group of the healers he was going with, a mixture of medical professionals from the emergency department and mediwizards that tend to injuries at events like these.

“Scorpius,” Hannah said just as he was about to make his way to the floo fireplaces. “Be careful, the scene hasn’t been cleared.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I have no idea what you’re walking into. We got very little information from the Aurors. All we know is it’s a minefield out there.”

He nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat along with his growing fear. He simply tried to push that thought to the back of his mind and approached the floo, grabbing a handful of powder and declaring his destination. He was not prepared for the carnage that had become Platform 9 ¾. The place known for happiness and joy, of going back to Hogwarts and seeing friends, had become unrecognisable, had become a place where nightmares manifested.

The adrenaline took over the nausea. He looked around, ready to sprint to the nearest child in need of help when the voice of Harry Potter calling his name stopped him in his tracks. The other healers had gathered around him and a couple of other Aurors, one Scorpius recognised from school.

“We’re unsure on the extent on the situation, there appears to be trip wires and explosive potions that have been planted, so be careful on every step. We have Aurors trying to disarm and find them all now, but we have no idea how many are out there. Be careful, look out for each other. Every step counts,” Harry said in a scarily neutral tone. It’s like he’d seen so much tragedy he’d become desensitised to it. Scorpius could never imagine something like this becoming the norm.

He looked around, his heart in his mouth. He felt like he was in a movie, everything around him moving in slow motion as people screamed in pain and children cried that their parents weren’t moving. Unharmed parents trying to tend to injured kids, getting blood over their hands and crying out when there was nothing they could do.

It was a massacre.

Then everything started again, the noise forced its way back into his head and it was loud and unapologetic and pounded against the ache in his head. He walked on careful feet to a young girl and her mother. The girl was maybe thirteen with tear stains down her cheeks, holding onto her mum’s hand and Scorpius was reminded of a similar time in his life.

_“You’re going to be okay, mum,” he said, tears down his face and breathing laboured. Astoria wrapped a hand around his and squeezed gently. “You have to be,” he murmured. For a long time he didn’t think his mum would respond, didn’t think she could say anything to reassure him because she could never lie to his face._

_Eventually, she stroked his cheek, her thumb soaked with his tears, and said, “you’ll never be without me, not really.”_

“HELP HER, PLEASE!” The girl screamed, bringing Scorpius back to reality. He dropped to his knees beside her mother and began treating her the best he could. There was no way - no way in _hell_ \- was he going to let this little girl lose her mum. He was not about to let a child go through the pain that he went through – was _still_ going through, because despite what they all say, it never gets better.

And so he tried his absolute hardest and felt a small sense of victory when he managed to bring her to consciousness and let a Mediwizard move her onto the emergency department where they’ll be able to bring her back to a full recovery with time. And because time meant everything when out in the field, Scorpius moved onto another patient. It was chaos, patient after patient, an every now and again another explosion would go off from a trap that had been set and more people would fall victim.

He was about to pass over another patient to a mediwizard when he heard someone calling his name.

“Scorpius! Scorpius, help!” He turned to find Yann Fredericks – a friend from school – running towards him. “Please, it’s my nephew, he’s hurt,” Yann panted once he reached him. Scorpius nodded, wrapping an arm around his waist as Yann was struggling to stand as well. Yann led him across the platform to where a boy was sat clutching his leg and sobbing softly.

“Hey,” Scorpius greeted, lowering himself and Yann to the floor. “I’m Scorpius, what’s your name?” He asked the boy as he gently took his leg. It had been singed slightly from the explosive potion, an open wound nearly straight through to the bone. If treated correctly, Scorpius might be able to save his leg.

“Isaac,” the boy whimpered, and Scorpius sent him a reassuring smile.

“How old are you, Isaac?”

Isaac let out a hiss of pain when Scorpius waved his wand to clean his wound. “Eleven,” he managed.

“First year then? Which house do you want to be in?”

Isaac pulled a pained smile and looked at Yann. “Gryffindor, just like my Uncle.”

Scorpius smiled at Yann too, then looked back at Isaac. “You know? I heard Slytherin was actually the best house.”

“Nah, Slytherin is full of losers,” Isaac giggled.

“Ah, must have been why I was in it then,” Scorpius joked back, getting another prolonged giggle out of Isaac. Scorpius looked at Yann slightly and frowned. “That’s a nasty gash on your forehead; you need to get it checked out.”

“Just look after him first, please,” Yann begged. Scorpius wanted to protest, but Yann was as stubborn a Gryffindor as they come (except maybe for James) and there was no way he was going to get him to leave his Nephew.

Scorpius spent the next few moments engaging in conversation with both Yann and Isaac to distract the young boy from the pain and allowing him to work without causing him too much distress. When Scorpius was confident that the trip through the floo to the hospital would be as comfortable as possible, he stood to get a mediwizard and took a couple of steps backwards.

“Scorpius, stop!” Yann shouted, standing quickly.

Scorpius froze in his spot, heart pounding. He looked down to see his was standing on a trip wire. One move and whatever that trip wire was attached to would go off. Tears clouded his vision as his breathing increased, panic rising through him. Yann shouted for an Auror or just _someone_ who could help. Within moments, Scorpius was surrounded by Aurors, telling him to stay calm but that was the furthest thing from the forefront of his mind right now.

They told him to stay still, and suddenly every single part of his body seemed to tingle, desperate to be moved, desperate to twitch. His breathing was only getting heavier, and all he could think about was Albus. _Albus_. His husband who had no idea he was here right now, who was going about his work day as though Scorpius was completely and utterly safe in the hospital. He would have no idea he went out in the field, was now a ticking time-bomb just waiting to explode. That within a single movement, he could be gone.

“Scorpius? Look at me,” Yann was saying, so Scorpius did. He looked up and met Yann’s soft brown eyes and tried his best to keep his gaze. “Talk to me, about anything,” he encouraged.

“I- er, I don’t know what,” he choked, tears now falling down his face.

“Talk to me about Albus, I haven’t seen you guys in a while, how have you been?”

“He wants kids,” he murmured, watching the smile that appeared on Yann’s face. “But I don’t know yet, but I’d do anything for him so if he wants children then I guess we’re probably going to have a child.”

“That’s great, you’re great with children,” Yann encouraged.

“When I can give them back, yeah,” he joked, causing Yann to let out a laugh. “What about you and Polly?”

“She’s pregnant,” he beamed. “We were going to tell you, arrange a dinner date or something when we found out the gender, but I guess you know now.”

“Congratulations, that’s really great and I’m really happy for you.” He may have said that through sobs and tears, but he really did mean it.

Yann, Karl and Polly may not have been the nicest to Albus and Scorpius in their early school years, but the death of their friend Craig seemed to bring them altogether. They bonded over it and eventually, they learned to talk about him with each other. They stopped blaming Albus and Scorpius, and they stopped blaming themselves. They created a friendship – nothing drastic, they ate lunch together occasionally and spent time in lessons together. That friendship even continued after school, and they kept in contact with each other mainly through letters and the odd dinner they’d arranged. It had been a while since they’d last seen each other, but maybe if he gets out of this, he can arrange something with all of them.

It felt like he was standing there hours whilst the Aurors worked around him, figuring out exactly where the potion was so they could somehow trap it in place so it wouldn’t explode when Scorpius moved. Yann’s nephew was taken to hospital and Scorpius made Yann go with him. He offered to send a message to Albus, but Scorpius didn’t want to worry him.

It was Harry, in the end, who was sat talking to him. They made conversation about the dinner they were both going to attend that evening, about how no doubt James would argue with Dominique over the potatoes and Freddie would pull some kind of prank, about how Charlie would finally be making an appearance after months of being AWOL in Romania and will no doubt bring a tiny dragon which would make Albus want to bring it home.

His leg was aching from being in one position without being able to move and, for sure, his foot was about to cramp up at any moment.

“Please tell me they’re close, Harry,” he begged, growing more uncomfortable by the second.

Harry stepped closer to him and nodded. “Nearly secured, you’re nearly safe.”

 _Nearly safe_ didn’t seem safe enough. He was still a time-bomb, still a fragment away from exploding. It seemed ironic. Out of him and Albus, it was Albus with the more dangerous job, working with creatures that could sometimes be unpredictable. Scorpius has had to patch him up on more than one occasion, yet it was Scorpius here now on the brink of death. One small movement and it was all over.

And he didn’t even get the chance to kiss Albus goodbye that morning.

Scorpius looked down to the Auror next to him who was working on securing the explosive potion. It had been discovered right by Scorpius’ foot, hidden behind a bench next to a giant pillar that was helping hold up the infrastructure. If that goes, so many more people around get hurt, but there was no way anyone in the direct vicinity was getting out alive either.

He couldn’t see what they were doing or how they were working on securing it, he just knew none of them had ever come across something like this before, so whatever they do might not even work. His breath caught in his throat when the Auror looked up at Scorpius and nodded, telling him that he can now remove his foot from the trip wire. He doubled checked, but they seemed insistent.

Slowly, Scorpius raised his foot, each movement still careful and calculated just in case they were wrong and the potion hadn’t been secured. Once fully removed and there was no sign of an explosion, Scorpius let out a deep breath, collapsing into Harry’s arms and letting out a choked sob. Harry held him tightly, a protective hand on the back of his neck just like the way his dad hugs him. He held him until Scorpius had calmed down, gently rubbing his back the way one would to a child.

Harry took him back to the hospital after that, both settling into Scorpius office with a hot tea and a couple of biscuits. Harry sent an owl to Albus with a brief description of the events and whilst they waited for a response, they made small talk. Though Scorpius hated small talk, it was a nice change from constantly talking about the attacks or Amelia’s condition.

He burnt his tongue on his tea when he tried to drink it too fast, but found the pain was a welcome distraction. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking and it felt like his breathing would never return to normal. Both he and Harry knew what was going on, both were prone to them: a prolonged anxiety attack. Harry suggested slipping a calming draught into his tea, but Scorpius never liked how they made him feel.

They were expecting an owl back from Albus, but they were not expecting _Albus_ to storm into Scorpius’ office and immediately take his cheeks in his hands. Harry said something about leaving the two of them alone before slipping out of his office.

“Are you okay, you’re not injured or anything?” Albus asked, inspecting him over. Scorpius shook his head as best he could with Albus’ hands still on his cheeks.

“I’m fine, physically,” he mumbled, patting his lap. Albus fell gracefully on top of him, wrapping his arms around his neck and kissing his temple. “You didn’t have to come.”

“I did. What kind of husband would I be if I didn’t? You’re hurting and need me, just as I was hurting yesterday and needed you, and you were hurting too but you held me. That’s what love is, so I’m here.”

“What about work?”

“I took a late lunch,” Albus explained as he was stroking his hair. That meant Albus was technically meant to still be working, but Scorpius didn’t push it. “Dad didn’t say much in his letter, did you want to talk about it?”

Scorpius shook his head, burying his face into Albus’ chest. They just sat in silence for a moment, basking in each other, reminding each other of the love they felt that meant a million words without having to utter a single one. Their love was as bright and loud as a firework, multiple colours bursting in the sky and lighting up their very dark lives. Without their love, both boys would have spiralled into a dark place a long time ago, but as long as they have each other, they’re bright.

Scorpius pulled away from the hug to play with Albus’ fingers, finding anything to distract him from his shaking hands. Albus’ hands were a wonder in themselves, calloused and rough from years of hard work with the creatures, fingernails slightly singed and mini scars from mini battles against the creatures. They were a work of art, they’d shown not only where he’d been, but also how far he’d come. But most of all, they fit perfectly into Scorpius’ own pale, healing hands, like a perfect puzzle piece.

He thought, perhaps, he was made specially to fit perfectly into Albus. When together, no matter how, they moulded to each other like clay. And in moments of need, they were there for each other in a heartbeat. They’d had their trials and tribulations, but every last one only made them stronger. For they weren’t much use whenever they were apart.

“Albus?” Scorpius murmured, planting a small kiss on Albus’ exposed collarbone. Albus hummed in response. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go to dinner tonight.”

Albus looked down at him, emerald eyes shining. “Why not?”

“The environment is never good for me whenever I feel this anxious, it’s too much and I’m desperately trying to keep myself from having a panic attack,” he explained, though he didn’t have to. Albus knew that the fast-pace chaos of the Burrow was sometimes a little overwhelming for both of them.

“That’s okay,” Albus reassured, running his hands lovingly through Scorpius’ hair. “What will you do instead?”

“I’ll stay here until you get back, spend some time with Millie,” he gestured vaguely to the files still open on his desk from that morning.

“Okay, my love, just make sure you-”

“Scorpius? We need you, it’s Amelia!” Fliss – another healer he worked on the ward with – came storming into his office. She didn’t apologise for interrupting, she simply took off back down the hall.

Albus quickly jumped off him and let Scorpius fish around his desk for his wand. It was Albus who found it on the floor underneath his chair and presented to him, giving him a quick kiss and telling him he’d see him later and to take it easy. They parted ways at the door of his office and Scorpius sprinted into action towards Amelia’s ward.

Inside, Amelia was screaming in pain, her hands pressed against her head like she was trying to keep her head from exploding. The screams were vicious and loud, cutting through any coherent thought Scorpius had. He hadn’t seen her like this before, the way that the night healers had described her as being difficult and out of control.

Scorpius ran over to the bed, joining Fliss’ side and cast a silencing charm to keep the other kids from hearing her screams. She didn’t appear to hear him calling her name, so instead he worked around her, trying to ease the pain as much as he could. He touched her forehead, pulling his hand away almost instantly as her skin burned his with a vicious sizzling. A few cooling charms later and her temperature was becoming under control.

Then Amelia suddenly stopped screaming, her eyes rolling to the back of her head as she fell unconscious following a short seizure. He thought perhaps it was for the best as long as her vitals were stable, so he and Fliss worked on that together. Once stable, Scorpius sat on the end of her bed and looked through her files with squinted eyes.

It didn’t make sense.

The headaches; the nausea; the bloating; the bruising; the temperature; the shortness of breath. It looked like just a normal fever from the outside, but the extremities of the symptoms suggested it was so much more than that. As well as the fact that this had been going on nearly two years, something just didn’t add up. Scorpius inspected the nasty bruise that had formed on her calf from hitting the bed during her seizure merely moments ago and was reminded of his own trip to the hospital when he was six.

_“It’s not the curse, is it?” He heard his father ask in a low voice. Scorpius was not meant to be eavesdropping, but he was young and he was curious. He frowned to himself, looking at the giant bruise that had formed on his chest and wondered how that could possibly be related to some curse. “Bruising, it’s a symptom of the curse.”_

_“We’ve checked him for the curse, Mr. Malfoy, we can’t see any signs of it.”_

_“Are you sure?”_

_“Positive.”_

Scorpius stood from the bed, checking Amelia was okay to be left alone and making sure the pain potion was topped up in her IV, before quickly storming from the room. He ran up the stairs to the Dark Curses ward, stopping only to take a deep breath, before heading over to the reception desk. On the desk was an older man who had been working there for as long as Scorpius could remember.

“Earnie, would you be able to get me Astoria Greengrasses complete hospital file?” He asked by way of greeting.

“Your mothers?” He asked as he stood and pocketed his wand. Scorpius nodded. “Wait here.”

Scorpius did as he was told, pacing back and forth. The ward was quiet, especially compared to the chaos downstairs. Though, if he knew the Dark Curses ward, it was far from quiet. Behind those closed doors would be a patient going through immense pain, screaming the place down behind perfectly cast silencing charms.

He remembered his small time on this ward like it was yesterday. The screams still haunt him, the nightmares never go away. He couldn’t stay long; he knew that as soon as he started. But it was three weeks in when he realised he truly wasn’t cut out for it; when he lost his first patient to a curse as cruel and unapologetic as his mothers. She begged him to save her day and night; she suffered for five days, before she succumbed to her malediction and passed away during a violent seizure. He still remembers it, the way her mouth foamed, her eyes rolled, her nose and ears bled. It haunted his nightmares.

She was just another name on the list of people he couldn’t save.

He tried to keep his anxiety at bay, though being back on this ward along with the added pressure of his suspicions; it was rather hard to do so. He checked his watch multiple times, watching the minutes tick by like they didn’t have a care in the world.

He should have been at the family dinner by now, but Scorpius was rather glad he decided not to join. He didn’t realise how long he’d been at Amelia’s side trying to stabilise her, barely having time to check on his other patients before he was back with her and figuring out the mystery. There was one thing he knew for sure: he could love Amelia like a daughter, and he could not lose her.

Though in the short three days she’d been in, she’d grown considerably weaker. Her condition was beginning to take its toll and Scorpius wasn’t sure how much her body could take.

Earnie returned half an hour later and Scorpius thanked him before jogging downstairs and locking himself in his office. He grabbed a handful of floo powder and collapsed in front of the fireplace, calling the Burrow.

“Hey, Scorp! How’s it hanging?” It was James who answered, looking at little too drunk considering he was playing a very important Quidditch match the next day.

“Is your dad there? Or Hermione?” Scorpius asked and James nodded, calling them both over and catching Albus’ attention in the mean time.

“Everything okay, honey?” Hermione asked as she settled in front of the fire.

“I need a favour, and it’s a big ask, but I’m desperate,” he half-heartedly explained. They both encouraged him to continue. “I need a file from the Magical Archives department, the family history of Amelia Caron, and as soon as possible.”

Harry pulled a confused face. “Isn’t Amelia that girl we brought in from the orphanage?”

“She is.”

“How soon do you need it?” Hermione asked, brandishing her wand.

“It will help me make a diagnosis; I don’t know how much time she has left.” It was all the persuasion Hermione needed; she was up and making demands with her Patronus moments later. Scorpius dropped onto his heels, looking at his mum’s file beside him and knowing he didn’t have the heart to open it just yet.

“Scorpius, are you okay?” Albus asked, taking Hermione’s place. Scorpius looked back at the fireplace and nodded, forcing a smile he knew Albus wouldn’t believe. “Do you need me there?”

Scorpius was about to say no when a choked sob erupted from nowhere, the overwhelming fear he’d been burying deep coming to the surface. But despite his cries, he still shook his head, but Albus was already pulling a pair of shoes on and telling him he’ll be there as soon as possible.

Hermione came back rather quickly and placed herself back in her spot. “I’ve pulled all the strings I can, the file is being delivered to you right now and should be there very soon.”

It was like her words had summoned the file as there was a knocking at the door. Scorpius stood and opened the door, showing the man his ID and taking the file from his hands. Scorpius dropped back in front of the fireplace, where it seemed every Potter-Granger-Weasley had stopped to listen in on the conversation. Albus paused to, coming close to the fireplace and sending him a reassuring smile.

Scorpius opened Amelia’s file, getting his wand out to pull up her family tree. It was a mess of squibs and muggle-borns and for a moment he felt like he had got it all wrong, a wave of relief washing over him. He went further and further along it, seeing muggle-borns marrying muggles and having non-magical children, who then sometimes had magical children themselves. It went on like that for centuries, until he saw a name that made his breath catch short in his chest.

Alida Greengrass – he’d heard the name once before. Alida was the first cursed witch of the Greengrass family. She was believed to be too muggle loving and her husband – Egon Greengrass – cursed her for it, and by doing so forever cursed the Greengrass bloodline.

And, just like Scorpius, she was distantly related to Amelia.

Scorpius’ heart dropped to the floor, splattering over the nice light grey rug. It always somehow led back to this, back to a curse he couldn’t cure. His mother; then a woman on the Dark Curses ward who he couldn’t save, who he tried so desperately to save so she wouldn’t leave behind a four-year-old son; and now Amelia. The casualties were getting higher and higher. He thought that after his mum he would be free of it, but it always finds a way to haunt him.

“Scorpius?” Harry prompted.

“She’s got it – she’s got the Greengrass curse.”


	4. The Quidditch Stadium

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to say that I'm sorry now :)

He didn’t rise when the sun did because that would mean he slept, and there were few places in his office that allowed for a comfortable sleep – and Albus had claimed the sofa. He came over straight away after Scorpius figured it out after dropping the dogs off at Scorpius’ dads, and stayed with him all night, even though Scorpius was in and out of his office to keep checking up on Amelia.

She had a rough night – rougher than Scorpius’. She barely slept, her fever keeping her up. It used to be the same with his mum, though she was never as bad as Amelia; or as young. That was one thing he couldn’t quite figure out. His mum wasn’t diagnosed until her mid-teens, yet here is Amelia at the age of eight and already had been suffering for two years. He wondered if she had been diagnosed earlier if she wouldn’t be in so much pain now.

He had, however, figured out the curse and its purpose. Alida Greengrass was a ‘muggle-lover’ and therefore, her husband believed her to be a traitor to the pureblood line. He placed a curse on her which reversed her magic, causing it to attack her body. She was still capable of magic, but every spell she did would somehow backfire on her internally. Alida left her husband for a muggle-born, and they had a child who carried the curse too. They thought they were doomed, but when their son never passed the curse on, they thought perhaps they were safe.

They were far from it, and the curse began showing up in random generations and apparently at different times in their life. Blood maledictions are unpredictable and cruel, and the Greengrass Curse was no different. Amelia showing signs of the curse as early as eight shows the dangers of the curse, and Scorpius didn’t have a good feeling.

Still, he tried to keep a positive mind.

He looked at Albus sleeping soundly on the sofa and smiled to himself, despite the heavy feeling in his heart. He was incredibly lucky to have Albus, he knew that much. Scorpius stood and pulled the blanket he’d found for him further up his body and pressed a kiss to his temple before leaving the office and heading to Amelia’s ward.

He had placed her in a magically induced sleep a couple of hours previous when her pain got too much, and she was still sleeping soundly. She would come out of it naturally, hopefully with ease and not in too much pain.

The hospital was eerily quiet, the kids all sleeping soundly and only the sound of the night healers going about their work. A couple of beds down from Amelia, Joseph was just waking. He was being discharged today and placed in a temporary home until the orphanage had been rebuilt and was up and running once again. The orphanage were making a slow recovery, which was a silver lining in a very dark cloud.

Scorpius sat on Amelia’s bed and brushed a few strands of hair away from her face. She looked finally at peace sleeping like this, all her pain had finally come to a temporary stop. He wished he wasn’t so lost, he wished he knew how he could help her.

He reached forward and started stroking her hair, a soft smile on his lips. “You’re going to be okay,” he whispered. “That’s a promise. I’ll figure something out, and you can finally be a normal child without the pain. And maybe you can come stay with me and Albus; I think you’d like it in a real home.”

The words tumbled out of his mouth before he processed them himself. He stopped for a moment, pulling his hand back, shocked at where his thoughts had taken him. He shouldn’t be surprised anymore, he had a habit of his mind running away with him, but this was something different. He never believed he could give a child a good life, but Amelia had already had a bad start, he could only make it better. He smiled to himself, looking down at this small child that he’d grown to love in just a few short days.

It only made him more determined to find a cure for her.

He picked up her notes, ones he’d made mostly throughout the night and looked over her symptoms, connecting them with various magical spells. Her high fever was an internal incendio, the bloating a shield charm, the nausea was one he hadn’t quite figured out yet but he was sure there’s something out there. There were many more, different symptoms linking somehow to different charms well beyond her age, but ones a child might be able to do accidentally. It was the bruising he was worried about most of all.

More and more were appearing on her skin, like her body was somehow punishing her for crimes she never committed.

“So, this is the famous Amelia?” Albus’ voice came from the side of him. Scorpius had never heard him approach, a telltale sign for how deep inside his own head he was. Albus wrapped an arm around his shoulder and left a gentle kiss on his temple.

“This is Millie, yes,” he replied with a heavy heart, leaning into the warmth of his husband.

“She’s so young,” he commented. And yes, that was the worst thing about it all. She was just a child going through something that even an adult would struggle to go through. With no one to help her because even her healer was at a loss. He wondered if this was how his mum felt.

“It’s not fair,” Scorpius said, taking a deep breath to try and ward off the tears that would no doubt fall. He’d cried a lot these past few days, his anxiety was at its peak since his school days and he could feel himself spiralling hard and fast, back to a place he never wanted to go back to.

Albus pulled him into a full hug, letting Scorpius bury his head into his shoulder, where he fit perfectly; like that spot was crafted perfectly for him. “It’s not your fault, my love. It’s important you know that and remember it.” Scorpius nodded and Albus planted a kiss in his hair. “You’ll figure something out because you’re you and you never give up.”

Scorpius pulled away and looked at Albus’ sea-green eyes and half-smiled. “I’m ready to talk about… kids, later, if you still want?”

His heart skipped a beat as a beautiful, enchanting smile graced Albus’ ethereal features and Scorpius’ mind was made up: he’d happily have children if it made Albus smile like that. Albus was nodding rapidly, biting his bottom lip to try and hide his euphoria. “Yeah,” he spoke, “let’s talk about it later.”

“You’re still going to James’ game, right?” Scorpius asked.

“I wasn’t, not if you want me to stay.”

Scorpius shook his head. “I’ll be fine, James needs you more than me for this.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am, Albus. Besides, I have a full day of work ahead of me.” Scorpius gestured around vaguely.

“You didn’t even sleep last night-”

“Albus, stop worrying,” he interrupted, taking Albus’ cheeks in his hands. “It’s just one day, as long as you’re there when I get home later, I’ll be fine. And you better go, tell James I said good luck.”

Albus grabbed his hands and pulled him off the bed, a cheeky smile on his lips. “At least come say a proper goodbye to me.”

Scorpius couldn’t help but smile as Albus led him out of the ward and towards his office, because Albus just had that power. He could always brighten Scorpius’ very bad day. When his brain was running at a hundred miles per hour with no sign of slowing down, it was Albus who could stop it; Albus who brought the sunshine and made it stay throughout the day.

Scorpius gave Albus a passionate kiss goodbye tucked away inside his office, basking in their last moments together before they’d be parted until later that evening. He then walked Albus down to the floo section and waved him goodbye, to which he received a wink and a wave in response.

And so, Scorpius began his day. Though can one really begin a day when they hadn’t slept the night previous? The morning – as far as mornings can go at Saint Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries – was fairly normal, quiet even. Amelia woke with ease, complaints of her pain to a minimum, so Scorpius managed to find a spare moment to continue looking for a cure.

He found the case of a young boy who had died from the Greengrass curse at just six years of age, the youngest case in history. So many of his relatives had become victims to this curse, his own mother included, and yet no one had found a cure yet. He wondered if anyone had ever really bothered trying.

He popped downstairs to emergency to ask for some advice to find Hannah and the other healers crowded around the reception desk having a casual chat.

“It’s the calm before the storm,” Hannah joked.

But she was right.

Because at 12:14pm, two hours and fourteen minutes into the Puddlemere United versus The Chudley Cannons Quidditch match, the news came in. News that sent the hospital into outright chaos, and made Scorpius’ heart come to a complete standstill. An attack at the stadium, leaving hundreds injured.

The hospital never had the full story, just that the people who were leading the attack flew in on brooms and started throwing spells and potions, whilst fiendfyre ripped through the stands. It was a combination of all three attacks so far, except on a much larger scale.

And Scorpius had no idea which members of his family were dead or alive. He had no idea if his husband was dead or alive.

And whatever it was that was holding his brain together snapped.

The air was sucked from his lungs. Chaos ensued around him, healers preparing for their flood of patients, but all Scorpius could do was drop to his knees and beg, beg, _beg_ his body to let in more air. His lungs were close to bursting as he struggled for breath, like someone was holding his head underwater mercilessly, pushing him deeper and deeper beneath the water, the world becoming darker as the sun faded from his view.

The banging of the hospital doors snapped him from his dissociation and he dragged himself to his feet as he rushed over to the patient being brought in my mediwizards, only coming to a stop once he never recognised the patient.

“Scorpius? We need your help, come on,” Hannah encouraged, so despite everything, Scorpius followed her, the mediwizard and the patient through into a cubicle, forcing himself to listen to what they were saying despite the beating of his heart in his ears. The man had been hit multiple times with a pretty nasty stinging hex, swelling covering his face, chest and arms to the point where he was nearly unrecognisable.

But that seemed like a walk in the park compared to what was to come. Patients screaming with fiendfyre burns combined with nasty hexes, limbs missing from explosive potions, open gashes becoming quickly infected. The hospital was chaos and every healer was rushed off their feet. No one had a second spare to breathe. Scorpius worked through the tightness in his chest and the overwhelming fear in his mind that he still hadn’t heard from a single Potter-Weasley, most of who were at the match.

He’d treated patients from both Puddlemere United and Chudley Cannons, but James was yet to make an appearance which only made him worry more. Though, they could be here and Scorpius could have missed them; he couldn’t possibly keep tabs on everyone.

It had been a couple of hours of treating patient after patient, losing a few to wounds that were too severe to save. He was almost fully burnt out when he walked back to the reception to grab yet another patient, stopping briefly to rub his eyes. The lack of sleep from the previous night was starting to take its toll. He was a dead man walking at this stage, and he was sure he’d soon make a mistake if he didn’t get a break.

“I don’t want anyone other than Healer Malfoy treating my brother,” he heard a voice, and he would have rolled his eyes at the request, but the voice was one that was all too familiar. That voice would whisper sweet nothings in his ear, would reassure him when he was feeling down, would drunkenly sing to him in karaoke bars and tell him he loved him every day before they go to work. That voice was his husbands, demanding and strong, but Albus’ all the same.

Scorpius immediately sought out the familiar black, messy hair, but he didn’t immediately see him and wondered if he’d somehow imagined Albus in his tired haze. Still, he followed where the voice came from and there was Albus, his hair mussed, leaning slightly to one side, a few scratches on his face, but it was Albus. Alive and well and Albus-y.

“Al,” Scorpius called and Albus looked at him, green eyes glistening but mouth pulled into a thin line.

“There you are,” he said, exasperated.

“James? Is he okay?” Scorpius asked, placing a hand on Albus’ shoulder. He wanted to hug him, to hold him, for all his weary parts to be cured with Albus’ touch, but decided it wasn’t appropriate in his work environment. The healer Albus was previously shouting at made a quick exit and Albus grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards a cubicle.

“He’s okay, sort of, being the stubborn bastard he is, but he had a nasty fall. Got hit with the revulsion jinx and fell from his broom but he wanted you and no one else so we don’t know the extent of his injuries.”

“And you?”

Albus came to a stop. “I’m fine, I promise. Though you’ve looked better.” he carried on walking again.

“Thanks, honey,” Scorpius joked, rolling his eyes. They rounded a corner and came to a stop outside James’ curtained off bed space.

“I mean it, are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine, Albus-” Albus cut him off by pulling him in for a hug, clearly understanding exactly what Scorpius needed at that time. Scorpius melted into him, the hug temporarily curing him of all his worries and weariness.

“OI, can you two stop snogging? I’m dying in here!” James’ voice called from the other side of the curtain. Scorpius pulled away and rolled his eyes at Albus, _clearly_ James wasn’t too badly hurt if he still teasing them. Scorpius would be more worried if he weren’t.

Albus aggressively pulled the curtain open, revealing James in his muddy navy-blue uniform, his white trousers ripped at the knees, robes torn and battered. Scorpius had to admit he’s looked better, and he’s seen him in some states over the years through Quidditch. There was blood trailing down the side of his face from a nasty gash in his hair, his knuckles were bruised and scratched. It was his leg, however, that was more worrying. It was twisted in completely the wrong direction.

Scorpius went over, lighting his wand and ordering James to follow the light with his eyes. “Did you fall unconscious at any point?”

“Right after the fall,” Albus said, coming up to his side. “When I reached him, he wasn’t responding. I threw shields up around us so we couldn’t get attacked further.”

“I was hit with a stinging hex too,” James said, groaning slightly as he attempted to unbutton his robes. Scorpius stopped him and shook his head, unbuttoning them himself to save James the trouble. “You know, Scorpius, if you wanted to take my shirt off, you could have just asked.” James winked at him.

“If you don’t behave, James Sirius Potter, I will find you another healer,” Scorpius threatened as he observed the growing red sores on his chest.

“Don’t be like that, Scorpy, or do I have to call you Healer Malfoy?”

“James,” Albus warned, raising his eyebrows at his brother. James threw his hands in the air and sighed, retreating. Scorpius couldn’t help but let a little smile cross his face, James always had a way of cheering him up – even when he was being annoying. James smiled at him too, but this time it was warmer rather than cheeky.

“Was anyone else hurt?” Scorpius asked, moving down to James’ leg. He cut the fabric with a spell and heard James gasp slightly as the mangled knee was revealed.

“Hugo was pretty bad, he came in with mum, but most of us got away with a few scratches. They all went to the Burrow, dad’s at work and Lily is actually around somewhere, she said she was hungry,” Albus explained.

Scorpius encouraged them to keep talking to each other, at easy feat when Lily came back and started explaining a story about something that happened in the café. With James distracted, Scorpius gave him a pain killing potion and set his knee correctly, earning a few colourful words sent his way from James which he couldn’t help but smile at.

“You have a few broken ribs and a couple of broken fingers,” Scorpius explained as he moved on to clean and stitch the gash on the side of his head. “Most likely a concussion too but at the moment you aren’t showing any severe symptoms of that, so I’m not too worried.”

“Just tell it to me straight, Doc,” James said in an exaggerated American accent, “will I ever walk again?”

Scorpius put his hand on James’ shoulder and sighed. “You will, but I’m afraid there is no cure for stupidity.”

James gaped, gasping loudly whilst Lily burst into giggles and Albus shook his head fondly.

“Albus,” James said in a highly authoritative tone, “get me another healer, I don’t want this one anymore.”

“You get what you’re given now shut up and put up,” Albus replied.

“Besides,” Lily spoke up; “you’ve got the best healer in the business.” she winked at Scorpius.

“Well, then he can find a cure for stupidity, can’t he?”

“I’m sorry, Mr Potter, it’s just your personality,” Scorpius said. James shoved him as Scorpius let out a laugh, only stumbling slightly before Albus caught him. “Now, will you let me finish treating you so you can get out of here.”

“Fiiiiiiiinnnneeeee,” he moaned, surrendering and lying back on the bed.

Scorpius fixed the last of his injuries, curing his broken bones and making sure his head injury didn’t have a lasting impact. He told James he was keeping him in for a couple of hours just to make sure he didn’t suddenly become nauseous or dizzy.

A paper aeroplane flew into James’ cubicle and landed on the end of his bed. It was Albus who noticed it first and picked it up and handed it to him after Scorpius had finished checking James’ vitals once again. He opened it up, expecting it to simply be a call from another healer in the emergency department who needs his help, but instead it was from Fliss:

_We need your help upstairs, it’s Amelia._

That’s all it read, so Scorpius told Albus where he’d be and took off in a jog upstairs to the paediatrics department. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, Amelia has been a difficult patient with a seemingly new problem every day since she arrived. But nothing – no amount a preparation – could have prepared him for what he walked into.

Silence.

It was so quiet; the beat of a butterfly’s wing could be heard even from worlds away. The entire world had stopped and it was staring at him, waiting for him to crack and cry and crumble.

Six healers were around Amelia’s bed, blocking her from his view, but none of them were doing anything except sharing solemn and sad looks. He already knew what had happened, he didn’t need to ask. On slow and careful footsteps, he made his way over to her bed. He stopped just short and took a deep breath, breaking the silence and causing six pairs of eyes to look his way.

“We’re really sorry, Scorpius,” Fliss said, and that was all he needed to hear for his fears to be confirmed.

“No,” he heard himself say, “she can’t – you must – please,” he begged, unsure of what he was begging for. He pulled his wand out, pushing past them to get to Amelia’s side. He listened for her heartbeat.

Nothing.

Then he checked her breathing.

Nothing.

She was gone.

He didn’t know where to go from here. The standard procedure seemed wrong, crying seemed wrong, leaving her seemed wrong. Nothing felt right and he wondered if anything would ever feel right again. He’s lost patients before, plenty of times, but none before her had ever broken his heart into a thousand pieces. None before her had ever felt so soul-destroying.

He didn’t need to ask, they just left him alone, drawing the curtains around her bed as they left, leaving him with nothing but his heavy heart.

He’d known Grief before, they’d become well acquainted in his youth. But as he grew, he and Grief grew apart, and now Grief was back. He’d forgotten how heavy she was, how overwhelming. Grief was that friend that crept up on you, that hung back in the shadows waiting to pounce. Grief requested piggy back rides to and from class; Grief slept in his bed next to him. Grief was always there and never truly left, even after all these years. And now, Grief was back and ready to suffocate him all over again.

And he would welcome her like an old friend.

All the promises he’d made were for nothing, all the wishing on stars he’d done never came true. She ran out of time and lost the battle of life. He failed her and because he did, an angel was born.

Scorpius leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead, brushing her hair from her face for the last time. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” he whispered, a single tear escaping his eye. It was all he needed for the waterworks to start, his eyes overflowing with tears and streaming down his cheeks. “At least now you’re free from your pain.”

He kissed her forehead one last time, and squeezed her hand slightly. His hands hovered for a moment before he turned to the flowers on the windowsill that had been brought by Otis and Belinda from the orphanage. He picked them up, plucking a single flower from the bunch (the red one, that was Amelia’s favourite) and placed it gently in her hand. Then he turned to the cards that she had so neatly spread out, cards from other kids at the orphanage wishing her a speedy recovery, all including some childish drawing of love hearts and kisses. All from children who have already lost so much, but now have lost another friend.

He picked up the unicorn plush from the floor where it had fallen and placed it next to Millie where it belonged. He wished he could have heard her laugh one more time, like when he used that teddy to tell her bedtimes stories, or just to have her voice call his name when he’d walk into the ward in the morning.

He didn’t know her long, but that didn’t matter because he loved her and she loved him and that was enough. And now she’s gone and he wasn’t sure how to handle this kind of grief because it was different from losing his mum. He couldn’t imagine how scared she would have been and all she would have wanted was to have him there in her last moments, and he failed her. He fed her empty promises and told her he wouldn’t leave and he did.

 _Soon you’ll get better,_ he promised. He lied.

 _I’m going to help you,_ he assured. He lied.

 _I’ll always be here,_ he whispered. He lied.

He muttered another broken apology before leaving her bedside, cheeks still wet from the tears but he didn’t have the energy to wipe them away. He gave a nod to Fliss to let him know she could go ahead with the procedure and walked downstairs. He picked up a patient file from the desk, eyes still glistening, nose still sniffling and called out the patients’ name.

“Healer Malfoy,” Hannah said, voice serious. He knew that tone and he knew exactly what she was going to say next. “You’re not in any state to be treating patients.”

“I need to,” he said, his voice sounding distant.

“Go home.”

“I can’t, Albus is here and James is still my patient and you still have loads of patients that need treatment and I can’t – no, I won’t fail anyone else.”

“You never failed her,” Hannah assured, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Go to your family if you won’t go home, but you’re done here.”

“Please – Hannah, I need this-”

“No, I’m not letting you do this again, go.”

He knew better than to protest, so he handed her the file and nodded. He stood there for a few moments, unsure of what to actually do now that his heart felt so heavy and Grief was sat on his shoulders. His legs took him involuntarily through the hospital, down winding white halls full of despair and misery. These walls never held happiness, they just showcased the heartache.

People come and go in this hospital all the time, some make it through and others don’t. Scorpius has hugged more grieving mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, nephews, friends, lovers, more than he has hugged happy relatives who are elated he saved their loved ones. He’s said the words ‘I’m sorry’ too many times to count and it never, ever gets easier. And he’s watched grieving loved ones walk these sad hospitals halls just as he is right now.

He may only have been Amelia’s healer, but he felt like so much more than just that. He wanted so much more than just that.

His feet had taken him to James’ bed and he took a deep breath before pulling the curtains back.

“You can go,” he said, walking in and picking up James’ file, “unless you feel dizzy or nauseous, which if you do then I would need to do further tests.”

“Scorpius?” James said at the same time Albus grabbed his hand and said: “what’s wrong?” Albus reached up and wiped the tears from his cheeks, the ones Scorpius hadn’t bothered to erase the evidence of because it didn’t matter; he’d start crying again soon anyway.

“I just need to discharge James and then we can go home,” he explained, skirting around the real reason.

“We?”

“Yeah – I, we – erm – Hannah, she’s -” a lump rose in his throat – “she’s sending me home because, well, Amelia, she-” his breathing got too heavy for him to the finish the sentence, heavy tears once again rolling down his heated cheeks.

Albus never said a word, but he knew exactly what Scorpius was trying to get out and pulled him into a hug, letting him cry all of his anguish.

“Albus,” he heard James say, but refused to lift his head from Albus’ neck. “Take him home, I can get another healer to finish here.”

“But you’ll be alone,” Scorpius mumbled.

“I’m here,” Lily said, “and we’ll be fine, Scorpius.” She placed a hand on his arm, clearly wanting to hug him too but he was still wrapped around Albus.

“There you guys are,” a voice interrupted as they entered James’ cubicle. “Been searching all over,” it was Harry, judging by the voice but Scorpius never looked up; he didn’t have the energy. “We caught the guys who were doing these attacks, which means no more, yaaaay.” Scorpius pulled away from Albus and wiped at his tears, trying to take deep breaths to calm his breathing.

“That’s great, dad,” James encouraged.

“Really great. Scorpius and I are going home, so we’ll pop in tomorrow to see how you are, James.” He gave his brother a hug, then Lily and his dad. Harry had popped in earlier to see how James was doing, and how Hugo was doing a few beds over, but had mostly spent the day being tied up at work, much like Scorpius had been. These past few days have showed the ugly sides of both their jobs.

Lily gave Scorpius a quick hug after James had requested one also, then Harry did too before letting them on their way. He wanted to simply floo home, but Scorpius had to get his things from his office beforehand. He worked around Amelia’s case file still spread out on his desk and he packed away his bag, unable to touch it for now.

Albus lead him to the floo and together they disappeared from the chaos and despair of the hospital and into the quiet and warmth of their home. There was no greeting from Tilda and Simba, who were at his dad’s (though Albus sent an owl to Draco to let them know he could bring them home). Scorpius disappeared to quickly get changed out of his healer robes and into a fresh set of comfy joggers and one of Albus’ hoodies before collapsing on the sofa.

Albus knelt down next to him and brushed a few strands of hair from his face. “Did you want me to make you a tea?” Scorpius shook his head; he didn’t think he could stomach anything. “A hot chocolate? It’ll help, temporarily.” Despite himself, he nodded and Albus disappeared into the kitchen, turning the radio on as he did for a bit of background noise. Albus didn’t like the quiet all that much, growing up in a household as chaotic as the Potters had that effect on him (though he much preferred the quiet to James and Lily shouting at each other about Quidditch).

_World famous Seeker Cagney Bryans was one of the twenty-seven deaths from the attack at the Puddlemere United Vs. Chudley Cannons Quidditch match this afternoon, with more yet to be confirmed. The attack started at roughly 12:10 this afternoon, with famous players such as James Sirius Potter also being injured, along with Hugo Granger-Weasley who was watching from the audience. It is unknown the exact amount of injured at this present time-_

“Albus, can you turn that off?” Scorpius asked, not wanting to hear any more about that attack, or any other attack for that matter. The death toll was too high; he’d failed way too many people.

Albus didn’t seem to hear him, so Scorpius grabbed the pillow underneath him and threw it aggressively at the offending radio, watching it as it fell from the shelf and broke to pieces on the floor. It didn’t make him feel any better, in fact he only let out a loud and frustrated sob, annoyed at himself for getting so annoyed and not having the energy to just get up and turn it off himself.

Albus came rushing in at the bang, looking at the radio on the floor before Scorpius and softening his features.

“I’m sorry,” Scorpius said.

“Don’t apologise. I wish there was something I could do.”

“Just hold me,” Scorpius begged. Albus nodded, getting the hot chocolates from the kitchen and placing them on the coffee table. He then grabbed a few blankets and settled down next to Scorpius, letting Scorpius cuddle against him, legs flung over Albus and head resting against his shoulder. Albus wrapped his arms around him and let him cry in peace.

The silence was almost too familiar. It was a different house, Scorpius was older, but the grief was all the same. Loud, deafening, suffocating, but eerily quiet. After his mum’s death, he spent days curled up in bed unable to do anything other than cry and cry and cry. He didn’t have Albus to hold him back then and now Albus was a great comfort even though he never truly understood what Grief could do to a person.

Scorpius closed his eyes and hugged Albus tighter, losing himself to the pain and weariness. He wasn’t sure at which point his dad popped in to bring the dogs’ home, he barely remembers Tilda licking the tears away on his face or Simba climbing up the sofa to sit next to him. His hot chocolate was left to go cold; he didn’t think he’d ever be able to get up from this spot again.

But he did. He sat up properly when Albus nudged him and they sat facing each other, legs crossed, hands on knees, just like they used to back in school. Albus reached up and wiped the tears from under his eyes and smiled softly.

“Talk to me,” he whispered. “We never spoke about this enough with your mum and I’m not making that mistake again.”

“This morning,” he began, and then paused. This morning seemed like a lifetime ago, not merely hours. This morning a young girl was still alive. This morning, the world seemed brighter. This morning was innocent; it had no idea how many lives the afternoon was going to claim. This morning had no idea that death was on the horizon; it had no idea that Quidditch stars and fans would die, that a young and innocent girl would lose a fighting battle.

“This morning…” Albus prompted.

Scorpius looked at him. “I told you we could talk – about children,” he took a deep breath. Albus nodded in response. “Amelia, I was going to ask if maybe – I know you probably – but I thought about asking you if you wanted to adopt her, give her a real home, you know?”

“Oh, Scorpius,” Albus deflated and tears twinkled in his forest green eyes.

“I was scared, you know, about ruining a child’s life with my name, but -” a few tears fell down his cheeks, mirroring Albus – “she’d already had a bad beginning, how could I possibly make it worse?”

“I am so sorry,” Albus whispered, pulling him in for another hug.

“She was so young, Albus,” he sobbed into his neck. Albus rubbed a soothing hand along his back, comforting him, letting him know that everything will be alright. It didn’t feel like it, but he knew it could be with Albus by his side. He slowly pulled away, wiping his own tears from his face this time and waiting for his breathing to slow down before speaking again. “I don’t know when I’ll be ready to talk about kids again.”

“No, no, that’s okay. You take all the time you need, there’s no rush,” Albus said, stroking his cheek. “I’ll wait for you because that’s what we do, right? That’s what love is, and when you’re ready then you’re ready and we can go from there.”

Scorpius was nodding, feeling overwhelmed with how supportive Albus was. He always had been, it’s what makes him a great friend and an even better husband, but he was always so shocked by his kindness. Not that many people were kind, but Albus had the biggest heart of anyone he knew. Scorpius leaned in and kissed him, letting himself feel something other than grief for the first time in hours.

“Are you hungry?” Albus asked once they pulled away.

Scorpius shook his head. “I just want to go to bed.”

“Okay, I’ll make something quick for myself and then we can go, okay?”

Scorpius nodded. Albus planted a quick kiss on his forehead and retreated into the kitchen. Scorpius wrapped himself up in the blanket, calling Tilda onto the sofa and cuddling against her, whilst Simba lay at his feet. He must have dozed off for a while, predictably due to the lack of sleep and the overwhelming emotions that had been fuelling his wakefulness, because Albus was shaking him awake regrettably and leading him to bed.

They curled up together in bed, the heaviness of both their hearts combining into one. He didn’t know what would happen the next day, whether he’d feel okay to go back to work – or even _when_ he’d feel okay to go back, he didn’t know if he would even be able to get out of bed. But for now, he would mourn for a life that was lost, for a young girl who deserved better. But not just for her, but for the others who were victims of those awful attacks, for the children lost in a fire, for those who died in Diagon Alley, and for those who never made it back to school. For those who just wanted to play Quidditch, or to see their favourite team win.

He mourned for the innocents and the lives he could not save.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want, feel free to shout at me in the comments :)  
> Thank you to @nicolejustdraws *(twitter) for all the drawings (if you can't see them at the end, she does post them on her twitter too!)  
> Thank you to everyone who's read this and I'm sorry for dumping my super sad headcanons on you :)  
> Twitter: @sunshinescorp


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